A Spartan Among Shinobi
by SHIPWRECK-5897
Summary: The Master Chief's life had ended at the destruction of the Infinity due to a traitor on board. He awakens in a new world with warriors known as "Shinobi" and being claimed as the "Pillar of prophesy" by a god. Now it falls under John-117's choices, will he ensure the prophesy in this new world safety and finally gain his sense of humanity... Or will he abandon it to a grim fate?
1. An Unconventional Demise

**DISCLAIMER/ I don't own Halo or Naruto.**

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"_Most of us regard good luck as our right, and bad luck as a betrayal of that right."_

-William Feather

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Chapter 1: An Unconventional demise...

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If someone had lost one they truly loved and appreciated more than hours earlier, they would be in tears. Some would choose to live no longer to make the pain go away, while most would be too grieved to complete any normal means of communication. Many beings go through these dark things that corrode our mind. Some of the traits are called sorrow, grief, mental pain, sadness, depression, unhappiness, and so many others they can't all be listed. There was only one conclusion to it all. The pain would never leave. It would never diminish. It was always going to linger in the pit of our hearts for as long as we continued to live and breathe. It would be an irremovable pin to our souls and spirits. It would always be painful.

Always.

No matter how we denied it, buried it, covered it, erased it, it would be a permanent imprint.

Some have ways of mending these pained feelings. Ignoring it by any means necessary, deny it until that person gets a face full of reality, replace that pain with love, or just accept it as it is... The first option proved to be a false statement since there was no definite promise of moving on since the mind could never forget. Denying the pain would constantly make you keep remembering to forget it, to deny the truth. The next option proved to be the most successful, but it's disadvantage though would be futile... For certain people of course, Love only happens when it happens... It was something that couldn't be proved by science, or sought out by the desperate. But if you did have the loyalty of your friends and support, you would manage... Finally, the last solution proved to be the most agonizing solution to ones morale spirit...

However, one man was going through both physical and mental pain... Both pain's equivalent to being ripped apart by thousands of knives... This man had lost his one true hope and life. Lost somethi- no, someone who had given his life meaning and importance. Light actually. This man could be described as a stone cold killer by all of his peers, an aging abomination made in a lab by most, or an overall monster. However, very few individuals cared for the man as the most valued comrade in arms, and some would agree to the fullest extent of this.

But what feelings did this being have toward everyone else? Simple, he wanted the safety of everyone's well being... It was his overall mission from the very beginning. Almost like an off and on switch to a machine, a setting. Defend humanity. That was all this man knew. It was all he truly fought for in everything. The only sensible obligation to uphold in his very existence was to serve the better terms of Humanity... As it's Spartan.

This man was the Master Chief. Petty officer Sierra 117.

A man brought into the UNSC when he was no more than 7 years old at the time from his home world Eridnus II. His entire life had been composed of being broken both physically and mentally, rebuilt, then broken again. This was a ceaseless process in his career and never ended. Life mattered of only 3 things to him._ Fight, live, serve_. After the insurgents, which was a tally of humans who wanted to begin a civil war with the United Nations Space Command were temporarily dealt with. A mixed alien race known as the covenant made their presence known, and then the appearance of a nightmarish virus called the flood which rocked the galaxy to it's core. It seemed prevalent for the human race to walk in on catastrophic calamities on a yearly basis, but the The Master Chief ensured Humanities safety.

Less than 72 hours earlier, humanity, once again was at high risk of extinction from a once forerunner general named Ur-Didact. He had been accidentally re-awakened by Spartan 117 on a distant planet called Requiem, and made a destination course to earth in order to "Compose" every human being.

Spartan-117 answered the call of duty and stopped him. Fighting through endless armies of both Covenant and Promethean knights, but not without the help of one of his most trusted allies, Cortana. An artificial intelligence who had worked alongside him for eight years... Eight long agonizing years of dedicated service. They were truly the best years in her short yet happy life. In this case John's luck had run it's limit. AI's go through a stage known as rampancy which occurs after seven years of service. It can be described as "short circuit", in which the AI terminates due to a cascade of quantum transfer caused by the sheer density of linkages. Basically, Cortana was going to deactivate. John had never felt such anxiety in his life by the revelation. It had the same impact on him the day he realized he would never be able to live a normal life ever again. Cortana was... Special to him. Someone who could feel what he felt. That special bond they shared. He had braced himself to get home, or better yet earth to get in contact with his last handler, that being Dr. Catherine Halsey. If anyone knew Cortana better, it was the creator itself. Unfortunately, his main priorities had changed drastically due to the Didact attacking UNSC bases for his 'ULTIMATE WEAPON' very rapidly.

Although the Didact's threat had been extinguished it not only costed the lives of hundreds of marines, billions of dollars in damages, an entire city of New Phoenix to be composed. But most of all Spartan 117 had failed to complete his own self mission with Cortana. While earth had been saved once again from destruction, the Didact defeated, Cortana sacrificed herself to save John's life.

Leaving John completely alone.

But as of right now John was fighting for his life against the revived Didact who was striving to use the halo rings against earth.

John viciously struggled to escape the Didact's death grip around his helmet as the alien god continued to squeeze it. His body was hanging up to his neck while his feet were swinging in the air above the ground, and all he could see was Didact's palm on his visor obscuring his vision. His vision began to show a spider like web of cracks around it until he realized it wasn't his vision... He was cracking his visor. All John could do was continue to endeavor the growing pressure around the base of his skull and listen to the growing crack...

**"No more..._Human._"** Didact's malice voice struck John's eardrums like a cannon. He kept trying to shake his aggressors hand off and try to break free. But Didact kept his grip solid on his helmet and continued to crack it. John's breath began to grow slightly rapid as his eye's scanned for any possible escapes. His thoughts were so erratic that he came to a conclusion...

Was this it? Was this where it all ended? Is this where he made his final thought and final action? After 30 years of space combat against alien aggression, was this who finally ended John-117's life and all of humanities hope. While John was nearly getting his head bent backwards to the point where he was beginning to think his spine might snap, even though it wouldn't due to his augmentations, he was feeling an agonizing pressure behind his neck. While this seemed unorthodox to John since he had escaped more intense situations, but this time there was no cortana...Memories began to spill into his mind as he awaited the inevitable death, exactly as his life flashed before his eyes. Almost like clouds of remembrance, he began to go over his life...

He couldn't remember his family, he couldn't remember his home, he couldn't even remember his real name. But he remembered the game... The game that made him stick out like a sore thumb on his home due to him never losing. John never thought of himself as unique or special in any case, but different like everyone else. While most kids played with electronics, dolls, or each-other, he would be playing king of the hill. The feeling of victory always lifted his spirits from dusk till dawn on the grassy fields and dense hills. While his recollection was hazy he could feel the warm breeze against his skin, and the smell of grass during his earliest childhood memories. It was truly... Happy.

It was all like a torrent of water being flushed out of his mind as it continued to play. Spots began to appear around his vision and darkness was beginning to follow.

"TAKE HIM DOWN, BLUE TEAM!" Frederick's leading cry burst through the air as he rushed forward wielding a forerunner scatter-shot. He sprinted toward the god creating a dust trail behind him like a speeding dune buggy. He lifted the rifle and pulled back the trigger.

John groggily tried to lift his left arm, attempting to try and force the knife deeper in Didact's eye, to see if he could kill him once and for all, but his arms had become heavy from the lack vision and oxygen. He then felt himself be flung like a rag-doll and onto someone when didact released him and spurred a massive dust cloud into the dirt. John felt the wind leave his lungs as his back hit someone and he sprawled in top. He felt a wave of vertigo take him for only a slight moment, before he attempted to get up by using his left arm...

Nothing..

He tried more forcibly this time but still he couldn't move. It was almost as if an invisible and immovable force was constricting him... This was scary to him. He was in the clutches of his worst foe, the one responsible for nearly all life being composed, responsible for causing another panic AGAIN, and most importantly responsible for Cortana's death.

Remembering her demise brought a burning sensation in the back of John's skull, but he managed to ignore it... For now. John growled in anguish as he tried to get up until he was pushed off of roughly facing down on the light dirt surface that was now obstructing his view. John continued to struggle... Harder and harder he tried to force his muscles to at least respond to could only move his neck but that was only a few inches above to see blue team engage the didact. Kelly-087 looked back at him but she was nearly hit by a golden composing energy blast from the Didacts prometheans. She looked back at John one last time before shouting.

"BLUE TEAM! CHIEF IS DOWN!" Kelly yelled alerting Linda and Frederick as she fired at the didact who let the beam bounce off him and create a small yet noticeable burn mark... But nothing else. Kelly kept firing at the deranged forerunner who raced forward and gripped Kelly's weapon with its mighty grip and crushed it in half like tinfoil.

**"You shall be the first to fall..."** The didacts claimed as several Promethean knights appeared behind him and behind blue team as well.

They were surrounded...

Blue team never stood a chance...

**XXXXXXX**

"_No... no... NO... NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!" _John roared in his mind as he could still hear Frederick, Linda, and Kelly's screams course through his mind. John had tried to force himself up by any means necessary but could only move his neck a few degrees, his wrists along with his hands and fingers... But nothing else. It was like being forced to endure the most painful thing... And watch it all. While his team were fighting he inspected his armor and was stunned momentarily to see that it was remotely being set on LOCK DOWN... And the signal was being traced back to the INFINITY in the sub level section... In the exact same room where he got his armor removed for the first time in years.

John silently struggled against the armors phantom binds, or better yet the gears that had kept him locked in place, hoping he could at least reach for his dead comrades weapon. He would never forgive himself for this. Ever.

It had become to much of struggle to have connections now. He tried to shift all his weight to move a few feet toward Frederic's corpse and grab his scatter shot, which was muscle numbing to chief as he exerted all of his strength to just move an inch in the sand.. But didn't care to hear heavy impacts in the rock behind him and cast a massive shoulder over him.

**"Why must you continue to prevail when I have crushed your only allies?" **Didact questioned while placing his foot on chief's back, stopping him from moving. John didn't really care or listen to him but tried to simulate a plan. And nothing was looking good since his armor was on lockdown and nothing was working right. He had to keep his emotions under control which ranged from an intense rage and sorrow from not being able to aid his brothers and sister who fought to save him. Now gone forever.

The Master Chief hated Didact, which was rare. He absolutely did. If there was any subspecies in the galaxy he hated more than now, it was no where near the hatred level he held for didact. His loathing was something rarely given to anyone or anything... But the Didact had crossed one too many lines to be spared. Once Chief got out he would end him in the most sufferable way possible.

But how? He had used every strategy in the book against the enemy in every way shape or form. He had used guns to blow away the didact to smithereens. That didn't work. He used explosives to the extreme by detonating a nuclear weapon and hoping to try and kill him, and even shoved a grenade in his chest. But _still _nothing. He impaled Didacts left eye with a knife, gouging out in the process, which should have been a guaranteed fatality to anyone unlucky enough.

Yet **again **nothing. It was beginning to look grim and rather scary, but John didn't know the word fear. He had experienced it a few times in his career, especially after his first contact with the flood. That was when he felt an unused emotion...

Fear...

**"I should rid you from the galaxy... But I will let you perish on you home... With the other lower beings underneath my competence."** The Didact finished as he lifted his boot off John's back giving him a chance to move...and reached down around the back of John's neck. The Didact's metallic fingers wrapped around his throat and lifted him slowly off the ground. John finally got a glimpse of blue team... And he wished he hadn't as he felt his heart spike, and the feeling of ripping Didact a new one.

Linda was missing her lower torso and was up against a stone. Blood pooled around like a river letting it spill onto the dirt and had begun to dry up. Her intestines rolled out and were clumped around her lower region and had begun to slosh into the dirt. Her armor was scratched and slightly dented in many places from being smashed into the boulders by the Didact's zero gravity telekinesis.

Next was Kelly who was in one piece, and was sprawled over the ground, but her helmet was not there... Not even a head. Her head had apparently been torn off by the Didact iron grip and thrown somewhere...

Lastly was Frederick, whose death seemed the least gory. Didact had used the knife John had stabbed him with and stabbed Frederick right through the visor and into his skull, killing him almost instantly. He was 40 feet away on the ground covered in dirt. He was on his back with his arms spread in both directions. Almost like an angel. But recently John had noticed his own visor had been broken.

Directly over his left eye letting him smell the blood outside and feel the warm air his his eyelid. He didn't know it himself. But his eye was twitching from the intense rage he was experiencing. His fingers were clenched to the point he thought he might break them and his teeth were shut tight like an iron bar. His brow furrowed and he said lowly. "You... Killed them..."

The Didact ignored this accusation however.

"**And as for you..."** The Didact growled as he grabbed 859 static-Carillion with his other free hand. The forerunner tool had tried to sneak up on Didact more than once in the fight, but Didact had sensed him and waited to strike like a viper in the grass.. **"You turn against your own master... How insufferable indeed." **

"You can't control the composers. Or erase humanity. It doesn't belong to you." 859 static carillion stated. "The backlash from an unknown energy will wipe everything within back into 25 light year-"

"**Now you shall join the spartan in death." **The Didact said before John heard metal being crunched and smelled an odd substance rolling through the air. Next it was followed by the sight of a crushed carillon flying on the rocky ground with a few loud "CLANKS" and finally stopped at Fred's feet and created a small dust cloud. Carillon crackled with electricity before causing a massive explosion and blowing Fred several feet away and rolling onto his stomach. John growled and continued to struggle only to notice an orange light was enveloping him. It became too bright and John's heart was racing...

Knowing the Didact had won.

And he had failed... for the _very_ last time.

XXXXXXX

"Whats the status of blue team commander Palmer? Captain Thomas Lasky questioned to the female Spartan IV.

Thomas Lasky was a decorated middle aged man of about 40 with brown hair and brown tired eyes. He had served in the UNSC since his family had history in the wars, and was just recently promoted to Captain of one of the largest warships in the UNSC. When he was 18 in the prime of his early training, he met The Master Chief for the very first time. This was due to the fact the academy he was stationed at, Corbulo Academy of Military Science was targeted by the covenant in 2526. The Covenant were attempting to wipe them out. This resulted in all of the students besides him and two of his freinds to be killed. Circinius IV was then promplty glassed on April 26...

His first love, Cadet Chyler Silva had also been one of the victims that day. Caught by a stray needler in the side by a jackal. Her death put him in absolute despair, which eventually pushed him forward bringing out the marine inside of him.

Sarah looked at the readings before her eyes widened at the red implications on the screen. "Blue team... Has been eliminated captain." She stated with a serious tone. Lasky turned to her before speaking in an authoritative tone. "There's no signs of them." He asked very seriously.

"No sir, Spartan-087 is deceased. Spartan-104 is deceased. Spartan-058 is also deceased... But Spartan-117's life scan isn't there." Sara finished with a questioned tone. Lasky's eyes widened as he stepped back. His hand went up to is collar as he loosened it a bit.

He looked over at the rest of the stations in the room and saw all of peoples faces. Some held shock while others grew increasingly worried. Sara coughed lightly as she pressed the com link on the side of her helmet. "I need a search team to engage the perimeter and recover the bodies of Spartans 087, 104 and 58 immediately."

Meanwhile, Lasky was having a serious panic attack and was beginning to have sweaty palms. He felt a large sense of guilt whenever anyone under his comman died or never made it out. The master chief though, that might not ever leave though. But he didn't have time to mourn.

Before a question entered his mind. He turned over to Palmer who was about to leave and asked. "And Spartan-117s location?" He questioned again, trying to deny The Master Chief's death. Palmer turned to him and answered stoicly through her helmets side speaker. "He wasn't there."

Lasky blinked before clearing his throat with a relieved sigh. Maybe the master chief had survived and made it out. " Then there's a slim chance. But that's unimportant right now. Do what you need to do-

**FFFFFWWWWWAAAAOOOOOWWWMMMMMM!**

A bright orange cylinder appeared in the middle of the control center alerting all of the occupants. The brightness became so intense that anyone without info-red reinforced goggles had to cover up their faces. A smell took over the control room and the bright light grew to an unimaginable proportion and a low _thumm_ sounded throughout the metal halls of the control deck.

A loud "THUMP" sounded and the light disappeared making all of the occupants blink to regain their perception of sight. They opened their eyes to see a 7 foot tall armored Spartan fall to the floor and his back against the pedestal of the control deck. Lasky lowered his arm and paid closer attention to see Spartan-117 incapacitated and looking worse for wear.

Lasky hastily raced forward and gripped the aging Spartan's shoulder and shook him lightly. "Master chief, you alright?" Lasky questioned worriedly. The Master chief looked up at him showing his one blue eye behind the cracked orange visor. "I failed sir... I've failed." Master chief claimed with a new emotion lacing his voice. Lasky blinked, before Sarah Palmer came forward and looked into his eye as she knelt down. "Can you move?"

"No."

"Are you injured?" She asked while trying to scan his armor's readings.

"No." John said not even looking up.

_He had failed so many in so little time..._

"Is there any damages to your armor?"

"Its on lock-down." John muttered.

"Why's that?" Palmer asked with a calm tone.

"It doesn't matter... The Didact activated the-

**BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBPOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM**

"ROLAND, SCAN THE READINGS OF THAT FLUCTUATION!" Lasky ordered the A.I at the top of his lungs. In the room as they noticed several of the machines in the room had began to malfunction. Computers lit up before shutting off and lights blew. Sparks rained from the ceiling and disappeared toward the floor. Sarah Palmer was looking towards the outside vast space and noticed an orange glow that was growing...

"WHAT'S HAPPENING!?" She yelled as the orange tidal wave of molten energy got closer and closer to the ships deck.

Then all hell broke loose.

There was an ominous boom in the station followed by a bright glow within the room. Lasky was beside Palmer and begun screaming and shaking. Lasky's skin began to recede by an orange glow as it slowly peeled back, next came his muscles underneath that gave him an appearance of something seen in movies, then came his skeleton... Everything else turned to dust almost instantly. Orange particles faded from the air then into nothingness. Palmer shared the same fate in the exact same order and turned to dust, save for a few pieces of armor that hit the floor and her rifle with a loud clank.

Everyone in the room began screaming...

And screaming...

And screaming...

It was truly horrifying sight to John, like everyone he had served, everyone he had dedicated time and sweat to, had failed. Their scream would constantly ring through his ears, reminding him of how much of a disappointment he was.

He would never forget it for as long as he lived for..

"..."

"..."

Then nothing. But as he hoped for solace the ship grew to an even louder proportion of screams as they rolled through the deck from the rest of the massive cruiser.

Screaming..

Screaming..

Screaming..

John began to shake. He wanted it to end. He couldn't take it anymore.

Screaming..

Screaming..

Then silence...

The Master chief could only watch as he felt the same effect of the composers before. A mind numbing feeling through every fiber in his body. His entire body was shaking and sweating...

And then blackness took over him one last time as he entered the most peaceful sleep he had ever experienced.

XXXXXXX

The light yellow/blue sky filled the upper layer of an ever growing green vegetation filled the jungle far bellow. There was an excessive amount of trees and plants that ranged for millions of miles in all directions. Many plants sported different colors, ranged in different sizes near enormous waterfalls that poured down the colossal leave shaped tubes. The Mountains were nearly touching the sky and were green as the forest that stretched forever.

The land was by far the hardest to locate, almost invisible to pinpoint. It was dated that no one, absolutely no one could find this place without the help of its inhabitants without the risk of becoming lost. It was so tricky to follow, a secret path was developed for those who gained the trust of its rulers to frequently visit.

The rulers, inhabitants, or overall beings who lived in this mystical land of the mysterious mountains and trees were mythical summons... Specifically toads.

But not ordinary toads who give you warts after you try to grasp them with your hands. But very intelligent beings who lived through the ways of chakra, and the ancient art of senjutsu that gathered all of the natural energy around them. They are greatly famed for using their sacred oil fountain in the midst of battles and teachings. It was so rare that the minute it left its graceful land, it would immideatly evaporate.

But something terribly wrong. Like the balance of nature was being put off of balance.

...

The great Toad sage, being known for being the wisest and could foretell the future was having a massive headache. But not just an ordinary headache... An immense one that made him groan as his webbed hand rubbed the top of his warty scalp. After nearly hundreds of years of life, the ancient toad was in pain due to an unbalancing matter. While not rare since the fate of time changed almost every second with every action...

Someone, or something was unbalancing everything supremely...

Like the calm pond had a small ripple... But the ripple that continued calmly became more unstable as the balanced nature... Fell but rebutted almost to quickly.

The information pouring into Gamamaru's thoughts were simply too much to comprehend. Almost like an overload of constant foreshadowing of future events, riddles, and everything else had become null... Until now.

Gamamaru took his simple hat off and looked down upon it. He touched the top brim of his hat before looking back into the distance of Mount Myoboku. He licked the bottom of his before trying to fall asleep to wear off the migraine. His last thought echoed in his mind as he closed his pale eyes.

_"May the pillar of prophecy... Not destroy the balance for the child of prophecy..."_

XXXXXXX

John felt like something was forcing him to wake up. He suddenly did not feel tired anymore but had the warmest sensation around his face and eyes. His lips felt crusty and the sides of his mouth felt increasingly dry.

He opened his eyes slowly and was only met with one color.

White... Pure bright vivid white. Nothing more. No details were surrounding him.

He felt weightless. As if he wasn't truly there. He felt as if he had been asleep for a millennium. His eyes felt very heavy. The inside of his stomach hurt like hell though. Almost like someone had plunged a knife and left it. He was very parched and desperately needed something to drink. He felt very sore, kind of like he hadn't moved in ages.

"**Life between death is peaceful isn't it?" **A old voice echoed throughout the endless void alarming him.

John became startled and tried to move but was met with a very painful surge to his insides. He tried moving again but couldn't budge. Not even turn his head. This was becoming infuriating at the fact he couldn't move to save his team his captain, or Cortana...

He HATED being constricted.

"**Do not worry, your quest has only started." **The voice emitted.

John tried to look again but felt something holding his face directly forward, any attempts to shake himself were met with more pains to his muscles.

"Who are you?" John groggily muttered as he tried to fiddle with moving but to no avail.

"**I go by many titles and names throughout time itself..."** The voice said. ** "But my real name, or what was given to me by my mother is Hagoromo." **The voice now identified as Hagoromo said. It was as an odd sound that seemed to loom over the white cloudy area.

John thought for a second, or tried to ignore the agonizing ache until he asked a question that sounded insane to him.

"Are you forerunner?" John knew the galaxy and physics had no limits from what they held, but this seemed out of everything he had yet to understand. But what he did understand is that all the forruners had either been assimilated, or wiped out by the flood... He was not sure where he was or who he was talking to.

**"No... I'm not..." **Hagotomo's voice boomed. **"I'm am not physical, nor godlike... Just me... But something has altered that."**

"What happened?" John asked in a blank tone, hiding the pained one. He was at a loss of words as of right now. He had lost his team, his mission, the INFINITY, and he couldn't even process what was going on right now other than death. John had heard marines talk about heaven before. It was something a few of them discussed prior to battle

Was this heaven? Not that John believed in anything religious. Since he spent his time evolved toward different customs and nothing like that was ever forced into the marines or Navy. He had witnessed many men hold onto belongings of some religious meaning before battle, but never divulged into that. He would also hear men "Pray" before battle.

These were meaningless to him.

"**You didn't die if that is what you are thinking. You simply are in submission without thought."** Hagorormo said as the colors in the void shifted to blue from white.

"What?" John asked not really understanding the basis of the explanation.

"**It means you are in a deep slumber that has your soul dreaming... Now you are destined to appear in a time where-**

"What are you talking about?" John cut off, getting sick of the playing. He needed to finish off the Didact. The crimes he had committed had risen to... to...

This was beyond a new level of destruction.

"**Your quest spartan... To undo what will happen." **Hagoromo said.

"I'm a solider. My duty isn't done..." John said while groaning. "Whats wrong with me?" He asked in an authoritave tone.

**" The pain is temporary, **but** now you have to listen. There is no other choice." **Hagoromo rebutted while ignoring the first claim.

"We make our own choices in anything." Chief said in a strained rasp, remembering Cortana's sacrifice to save him. That was her choice but it had left him broken.

"**That is true in some degree, but in this case no... You do not have a choice. There is a prophecy that foretells of a child who would bring the world to peace by gaining power through love. But his teachers actions would determine of what use he would use his power for." **Hagoromo continued. **"It was prophesied through all the loss and death there would be a great battle and it would determine whether he would save the world. Or destroy it." **Hagoromo finished.

**"Then you caught my attention. Before I passed away into death, I was told of the prophecy by a great being, he told me... But then something happened."** Hagoromo paused for a few seconds to continue the story.** "My memory became distorted and I thought I had heard every detail but shocked to remember that I had forgotten essential being who told me was a legendary toad known as Gamamaru."**

John was listening but not actually believing it, but he decided to listen since he had no mean to leave.

**"He foretold me of a mischievous blue eyed boy who would save the world by combining the Bijuu... But the only way he would succeed... Is with the help of his pillar to the prophecy." **He finished momentarily for the sound of whispering winds to roll through the air. John was not understanding how a reptile was legendary, and no idea what Bijuu was. He didn't understand what this thing was telling him, or what it had to do with him in the first place.

"What does any of this have to do with me? This doesn't have any concern with me, or my duty." Chief said as he brushed off the story and was waiting to see what would happen next, but he wished he hadn't.

The blue sky turned ebony black and a thick killer internet struck John like a banshee blast. He tried to escape but found himself staring at two massive purple eyes that stared into him. They appeared with rings in them. **"THE PROPHECY IS AS REAL AS YOU AND ME... I WOULD ALSO SPEAK MY WORDS VERY CAREFULLY." **The once calm voice now sounded darker and more grim than ever before. Was this heaven or the other darker place. Was this all just a dream that he was gifted? Or a nightmare that was bestowed?

"**And your duty is to become a pillar to the child of prophecy." **The sky then became increasingly gray after that statement.

It seemed the areas were affected by the tone of Hagoromo's emotions.

"Pillar?" John asked aloud with a bit of curiosity. Now he was supposed to be a decorative accessory to a kid.

"**There is no indefinite way of knowing if he will truly rise and be the world's savior. Since you have done it on many occasions.. Along with your universe."** Hagoromo stated making John wonder how he knew that.** "Now are you ready? Ready to become the Pillar to the prophecy?" **Hagoromo questioned one final time expecting an answer.

John was at a loss here. Hewas very indifferent of the choice. His overall mission had failed, and everyone was dead. This was about to become a war against time and reality to him... Once he entered a game of lets play hero, he would win. But when someones life was on the line... That would be a questionable debate.

The last few hours John had been questioning his luck since everyone he had cared for died... Was his luck turning salty? Or was fate a cruel being? He really couldn't decide what was going to happen...No, he can't abandon earth like this, not now.

He didn't spend his entire life training, and fighting to give up everything for some hallucination.

This was probably all a dream after all.

"**Your time is up... Goodbye...And do not fail the child... Or it will be the last thing you hold precious for." **Hagoromo finished as the purple eyes turned pure white...

And sleep took John as every fiber in his body split...

IT HURT. Like all of his limbs were being torn from their muscles along with his head being ripped off. The pain inside him only escalated to an unimaginable point. He felt like he was about to vomit but the only thing that came out of his mouth was an unbearable scream. Everything around him burst into a glowing glare stronger than a super nova.

XXXXXXX

Darkness surrounded him, he couldn't feel his fingers or toes. Everything around his face felt numb and everything about him felt heavy. Almost like he had been asleep. John began to wake up. A sense of alarm took him, almost like light appearing at the end of a tunnel. He then calmed himself and began to run mental diagnostics. He felt his back in his armors surface. Check.

He began to move his fingers very slowly, making sure they were attached. Check

He then heard something crashing... Not metal, glass, or vehicles...

But water. The sound of waves...

_'The ocean...'_ Was John's first thought when his ears caught the captivating vibrations of water crashing along the beach. When he opened his eyes not only was he seeing that his helmet was still destroyed but saw the metallic ceiling of the INFINITY. Sniffing once through his crusty nostrils, he took note that all he could smell was salt from the sea water and hear the sounds of distant ocean. A low groan escaped his lips as he tried to concentrate his actions and gain a sense of what was going on around him.

Everything around him had sped through so quickly that he was trying to catch his breath and collect his thoughts. Or what was left of them at the moment. He suddenly felt a pull in the back of his throat when he remembered what had happened and nearly felt his lip clench. He felt as if he had woken up from a nightmare into a whole new meaning of terror.

The Didact had won, humanity was going to face his genocide on their own without any defense, and all of his comrades were killed because of his mistake.

John was adapt to making mistakes. Nearly a lifetime ago that is when he was in the prime of his youth and more inexperienced days. The days when missions that were run over in a brief conversation only became something more horrible. They became real. However, mistakes costed him greatly in lives... It would constantly ache in the back of his heart forever and always no matter how much he would try to shut it out.

Over the years it ached less and less since he had more important things to pay mind to, like stopping the covenant...

But it was still there. No matter how small, or large, the weight would never diminish...

In the end. Everything was getting worse by the second.

After an unknown amount of time of not stuttering a thought or moving in inch, John had enough with collecting all of the accidents and decided to get up. He spread his hands across from him and pushed himself off the ground slowly. e didn't look forward but down at his stomach and noticed that there were some deep gashes in his armor. He tried to activate his HUD, but came with no results. After rising into a sitting position, he began to slide forward. Clenching his fingers into the floor to stop him he looked up and saw something both breathtaking and scary.

_Wait... What?_

It was a calm and sunny day with a cool breeze... and half of the INFINITY had been torn in half. Right down the very center.

John looked down in front of him and saw an endless ocean with giant chunks of metal sticking out. His armored boot was hanging over the edge of a couple hundred foot drop. Considering the metal surrounding the outline of the INFINITY looked like it had been forced apart and quite sharp. This had resulted in hundreds of metal debris to float in the salty waters hundreds of feet below him like scattered puzzle pieces.

Taking a breath he also noticed something was very off about everything around him...

It all looked fake. As if this was a simulation of some sorts and it had been set to a lower hue. The shadowing seemed off along with an assortment of lines in the water that didn't appear 100% natural. When he was younger there would be animated television shows in shopping districts that would draw crowds of curious children... Everything looked as if it were animated. He lifted his right hand and examined it.

The same example was his hand. The detail was too obstruct, as if someone had actually illustrated him and animated him. The colors were... _not right _to say in the least. It didn't look or seem real. He moved his fingers around to see if he was in control. And sadly was. It didn't look like he was alive. It wasn't adding up.

Almost like a machine starting, John was piecing together theories. Maybe it what was in the air, some form of gas that was affecting his thinking. Possibly. This was all he could come up with.

If he had Cortana with him, she would have told him 37,000 different reasons why that was wrong or given him a week's worth of theories. Now that he was alone, his eyes and ears were going to have to be manually operated from now on. Ever so slowly, he scooted away from the edge and stood up. He observed his surroundings again to see it was still real. It just didn't sit well with him in any way. Even when he stopped staring at some it occurred to him that maybe it wasn't real. In a way at least.

Thinking back to that being, Hagoromo, John suspected he was the cause of this. If he could find him maybe he could explain why everything around him looked fake. The area's detail looked unquestioningly fake. None of it seemed physically possible.

John looked behind him and on the floor to see the MA5D assault rifle Sarah was holding when she died next to a pile of dust. Sarah palmer's dust that is.

The dust pile whipped slowly around when a soft breeze caused it to pick up a little. It began float up off the deck like a mini swirl, its soft motion continued as the breeze from the opening in the massive hole in the deck mad it disperse and spread into millions of nearly invisible particles. Sarah's armor white SCOUT-class MJOLONIR power assault armor was then stained by a small patch of dust over her tilted helmet that layed on the floor, the suns rays gleaming light over her blue visor.

John craned his neck back and slowly looked behind him through the front glass to see the choppy green waters. He continued to stare at it for as long as he could with one question clouding his mind.

Where in the galaxy was he in and how would he escape?


	2. Unknown planet, Uncertain plans

**DISCLAIMER/ I don't own Halo or Naruto.**

* * *

_"A hero is somebody who voluntarily walks into the unknown."_

-Tom Hanks

* * *

Chapter 2: Unknown planet, Uncertain plans...

* * *

John watched as the ocean's waves crashed against the metal hull of the Infinity hundreds of feet below. The wind was positively strong today as a gust appeared every now and again, and it would smack against John's frame. He had stood there, motionless as he observed the rough seas before him, trying to think of his next plan.

After watching nothing he began calculating it was around 8 AM. If he guessed correctly, he was located on the northern hemisphere, and the sun was in a certain position in the sky. When in the north you were to face south; in the southern hemisphere you faced north, towards the equator. When it was high noon, 12PM, the sun would be in the very center of the sky.

The wind speed was around 62 mph headed southwest and the temperature was around 61 degrees fahrenheit. When John kept staring forward his eye would twitch in irritation to the salty wind. It made him slightly mad that his helmet was still heavily damaged from the Didacts strength. Aside from the gaping hole in his visor right above his left eye, there was also a multitude of serious damage to the back of his central interface. If it wasn't removed correctly, and possiably damaged something attacked to the very base of his spine, it could kill him.

Now in most cases when experiencing troubles to any components to his armor, he would go directly to the engineer garrison bay and have it removed and fully repaired. Although, since the loading bay was on the other half of the ship and the other half of the Infinity was no where in sight he was trapped here. Not to mention there were no engineers to help him remove it with the composers rays. Until he found a way to break it off he was stuck in this armor until further notice.

After thinking for a moment, John lifted his hands and tried manually to remove the helmet. He twisted it, pulled, and tried to snap it off. But this proved hazardous as he felt his neutral interface make his head stick to it. When moving about felt a great sense of freedom now that his motions were in full control.

This greatly confused him since something had him on lock-down earlier. He wouldn't make assumptions yet, but something remotely had to be involved. The Didact might have found a way to malfunction his armor when he grabbed him. Probably inserting some type of virus or the possibility of a Promethean knight made it's way onto the Infinity.

However, that didn't explain how it was being traced back to this exact same ship. He would search the Infinity for a source and to find out where the armor control setting station was, and read through the use history.

However, from observing the lights above and not seeing a single glimmer of electricity there wasn't any power within the vessel. And due to the lack of power and remote connection, all of those ways were not going to work. After trying to form a plan there was one way to access the same frequency that had deactivated and locked his armor. If he could gain access to the armor dock bay if he could find it and see if there was any way to get the helmet off.

First though, he had to restore the power.

John turned around and walked to the holotable. The dark metal along the sides was bent slightly to the left from impact with a few of the lower cords being ripped, the glass that was the main screen was cracked on the side, possibly from John hitting it on accident.

John glared at the glass as he tapped it 3 times, trying to get a response, but getting nothing in return but a view of himself. He looked at his animated self, turning his head left to right. Taking in every detail, and he automatically noted that the shadowing in certain areas was too defined. After a amount of unspecified time, something caught his eye on his helmet, and he found out it was a dent. He touched the top of his head and saw the massive hand print from Didact. His eye furrowed downward from the thought.

Clenching his fist and knowing what he was after, he turned to the left and picked up Sarah's assault rifle that laid on the floor next to her discarded armor, filled with her ashes. John raised the rifle examined it. He still couldn't help but feel confused due to the oddness of it's color and shape. As if it weren't real at all. Everything had happened so quickly in the span of an hour in John's perception that it was simply too much. He was beaten against the Didact, lost his team, more than likely lost the war, got everyone aboard the Infinity killed, has a weird dream with a pair of talking purple eyes, and wakes up in the destroyed Infinity in the middle of the ocean.

And everything looked wrong.

Perhaps it was the planets atmosphere affecting him and making everything look as a colored drawing. Then again, the force of the impact could have caused hallucinations and this could only temporary.

Turning over to the corner he walked over to the edge of the ripped floor of the Infinity and gazed outward. He looked around the metal edging of the once massive ship and felt a bit off of balance. He looked out one of the windows and noticed that the ocean seemed a bit off toward the left, like one side was higher than the other. It seemed from the looks of the metal being forcibly ripped. The ship must have crashed into the ocean after entering it's atmosphere at top speed, skidded in the water for a few hundred feet, but due to the pressure from the speed it broke apart into two.

But this was just an assumption based off of statistics and weight from the massive hull. Right now John was standing in a smaller section on the far right of the control deck... Now he had to locate the other half of the INFINITY and complete his tasks.

John walked over to the sliding door at the very end and waited for it to do as it was named after. Of course he realized the ship lacked any power so the doors were sealed shut, and would not open on command.

John studied the center opening with it being a gaping line about 3 centimeters, enough for him to see the other side. He looked at his hands before gaining an idea. He put the rifle on his back and slipped his fingers in between the doors cracks. Pulling in opposite directions, he began to pry it open with his bare strength. He gritted his teeth as the metal began creek under the applying pressure and slowly began to open inch by inch. John's hands were becoming sweaty and he was considering to take a moment to force it open with a single burst, but decided to take take his time. The metal door was open to about 2 feet and John wedged elbow in between to force it open fully. He pushed one side of the door open before forcing the other into the wall.

After getting it open, he gazed down the right metal hall outside the main control deck before taking realization that he was completely alone on this ship.

He turned around to look at the pile of ashes of the former Captain Thomas Lasky, and couldn't help but feel something needed to be done. Like a service of some sorts. But John himself didn't really like funeral services since one shouldn't be remembered for what is expected. He was his captain. Being Captain was going to call for this type of thing... Lasky was different though. He was there to lead against the Didact, along with Admiral Hood. As a matter of fact, was the admiral on the ship during the composer's attack?

Did he make it out alive? Or was he composed?

Either way, John wouldn't know since there would be nothing left other than an ash pile and no way of knowing... This though however made John feel sick in the pit of his stomach.

He remembered what Lasky had told him 72 hours earlier, right after the first incident that resulted in Cortana being destroyed. It really struck a deep chord inside him from his memory and continued to for every living second; like a repetitive click from a clock on the wall. Lasky was a brave and noble comrade who fought and led his soldiers to victory... Until his career was brought to a wretched end by the composer.

He looked at the pile of ashes on the floor before seeing something gleam in his eye. His eye readjusted and it was a M6G magnum lying on it's side pointed east. Walking over to it and picking it up he stared at it for a moment, remembering his captains words to him that stuck to him like glue

"You say that like soldiers and humanity are two different things. Soldiers aren't machines. We're just people."

These words would never leave John's head. They were the only things said to him about something he never truly discussed with anyone. Not even Cortana. He layed the magnum over Lasky's ashes before saluting it. He tuned around and began walking towards the long hallway.

XXXXXXX

"_Great."_ John thought to himself in walking for nearly for an hour and looking at the lining of the damages, his calculations were correct. The U.N.S.C INFINITY had broken in half.

Right down the center.

Tears in the metal that seem to be absolutely shredded supported his claim, and considering the other half was nearly a couple kilometers away, it was safe to assume that the landing was not as bad as he expected. If they had entered through the atmosphere there would have been burn marks from the re-entry. But strangely there wasn't. After looking down John calculated that the drop was nearly 2,000 feet below. If he could reactivate his helmets targeting system, he would be able to measure it more accurately.

He looked to the rippling ocean and one of the ships countless room openings that lead to the engine deck and the garrison bay. John was thankful the Infinity hadn't gone completely under water, this war ship was John's only base that he could come to to stay out of the water. If he hadn't he probably would have woken up under water by now. John needed to get to the armory and remove this helmet and find who locked his armor during the combat. It wasn't what needed to be done, but HAD to be done. He couldn't see straight and if the helmet could have been damaged beyond repair then this was more serious then he could imagine.

Turning his heel he loomed over the edge, trying again to calculate the height. Looking down and back behind him once more, he let his body tumble over the edge before he quickly gripped one of the metal flooring pieces that stuck out and swung onto the wall opposite of him where his feet impacted. With nothing holding onto him he began to slide down. Faster and faster as the milliseconds passed on.

He listened as his boots scrape against the metal lining as he leaned back and let his hand glide on the metal as well and saw the ocean below coming closer and closer. This was a standard slide down a steep hill in case it were to ever happen. Which did. But John needed to be extra careful. The MJOLONIR weighed more than a 1000 pounds and he didn't know how deep in the ocean he was in.

He would sink like a stone to the bottom and drown with the hole in his visor letting water pour in.

Before he would impact the green smashing waters below, John pushed against the metal alloy frame and flew across almost 45 feet. The wind stung his eye causing him to close his one exposed eye and used the other one to look across and see that he was nearly at his destination. He through his hands out and reached forward with both sets of fingers catching the other side of the ledge. John nearly lost his grip as the metal began to bend down.

He grunted as he pulled himself over and caught a glimpse of the armory bay where all of the lights were shut off. Numerous floors contained operating tables where SPARTAN-IV's got theirs fitted an removed. Hundreds of metal crates had slid across to the other half of the massive corridor from the crash, spilling out numerous scraps and contents in the process.

John climbed himself over the rigidity ledge and stood up. He tried to see if there was anyone in the area but the silence next to his deactivated HUD answered that question for him. After looking at the closed armor fitting station that was just 43 feet away behind a locked gate he marched directly toward it and went directly to the front gate. the room was increasingly dark, thankfully he could see very clearly. Looking down at the small podium pad near the gate, he pressed on one of the activating buttons, in hope of some power..

Yet again nothing. John pressed again and again to still get the same conclusion.

The sea water probably made it's way inside the engine room and fried all of the central circuit boards. That or the crash destroyed it. He would now have to go to the back of the Infinity's engines and restart the power manually. Unfortunately he had no idea how to do that whatsoever.

He was a Spartan-II commando with basic knowledge of mathematics, geometry, galactic history, a major in engineering military hardware for repairs, basic knowledge on health, basic anatomy, driving and operating in nearly every vehicle in the UNSC, map reading, and how to assemble and disassemble any weapon to the exact factory setting.

But restarting the largest super carrier as humanities last line of defense was way out of his league. He didn't know one thing about he ships schematics or the possible outcome of accidentally setting the ship on an alternate setting. He would need a lending hand or even a quantum theory just to figure out how to properly drive this ship... If it was salvageable.

John growled before looking over at the control station where the tools were set from assembling and disassembling the armors pieces to hold them together. He looked at the gate and noted it was just past his knees, not very tall...

...

He initially stepped over the short white gate and slowly walked over to the circular machine with retracting mechanical arms that were offline. They were originally used to remove the screws but with the power outage there wasn't any use for them. He begun to move around, looking for anything helpful. Anything to release him from his helmet's invisible binds. He stepped on something and looked to see there was a mass collection of tools on the floor.

If memory served correct a certain type of drill was used to remove and tighten the helmet to the base of his skull. He looked on both sides noting that it was quite dark before deciding to switch his helmets lights on. With a click, they both came on lighting up his peripheral vision within a couple 70 feet in front of him. He looked on the floor and saw several armor pieces from previous spartan IV's that were unlucky enough to be caught in the composer's death ray's.

He looked around for any tool pieces, a drill of some sorts or possibly a power saw to cut this helmet off. His shields were not responding at the moment so it's timing couldn't be any better. He continued to look on the metal floor for any appliances that could aid him with his removal problem until he saw something against the wall .. It was what he was looking for.

A power drill.

Not just any drill, but the same type used to tighten the advanced bolts in between holding the joints of the armor together. The bit on the end of the drill was the perfect match and hopefully, ran on battery than electricity.

_"That luck of yours never seems to run out..." _Cortana's voice lingered in his mind from the memory of crash landing on Requiem.

Turning that thought away into the dark, John walked over to cluster of scrap metal with the drill. He reached down and grasped the handle cold square power tool and gazed at the tip, he lifted it more closely, nearly eye level and observed it to see any wires connected to it. None.

He then pulled the trigger and the drill let out a ring of a buzzing sound as the end piece spun.

_"IT-IT-IT WOULD BE B-B-B-BETTER TO TURN THE POWER ON."_ Said an eerie voice behind in the dark. John spun around so quickly that he accidental dropped the drill, emitting a loud omonious "CLANK" that echoed throughout garrisons bay. When John turned something orange caught his eye. He scrutinized that same orange something in the distance. Almost like a candle in the dark, he saw an orange flickering figure standing on a pedestal.

He was wearing what looked like a WWII version of pilot clothes. His overall stature was flickering on and off, looking like he was malfunctioning. "_I'M RLD 02054 R-R-R-ROLAND.. (STATIC) THE INFINITIES FORMER A.I."_ Roland said as he continued to de-fluctuate as the seconds rolled by.

"Former?" John questioned as he walked closer to the pedestal with Roland standing formaly on top of it dead center. John was glad and very grateful that there was some piece of the UNSC that could give him some part of contact and information.

_"Y-Y-Y-Yes... I was damaged severely from the force of the i-i-i-i-impact... Lucky me hu-h-h-h-h-h-u-h?"_ The malfunctioning AI joked before The Master Chief continued to stare at him. Roland slumped his shoulders before replying. _"I won't be leaving the s-s-s-s-s-hip... I'm going to deactivate with-i-i-i-i-i-i-in the next hour. When the Infinity first crashed on R-R-R-Requiem, it was d-d-d-d-estroyed. I was it's replacement."_

"Is there anything I can do?" John questioned. Like Cortana's condition, John got a small twinge of nostalgia with hopelessness when Roland told him of his condition.

_"N-n-n-n-n-n-o... The crash did me in... I have to accept that..."_ Roland rebutted with a hint of detest. John looked around the very dark rooming area inside the armory bat, and turned his head toward the left where the sun entered the small opening he had arrived in.

"Is there anyway you could restart the power to the Infinity?" John asked without looking back at Roland. While considering the Infinity has been in the ocean for who knows how long, he hoped the saltwater hadn't damaged the engine and the power grid too bad that it was unsalvageable and beyond repair.

Like a city coming to life in the dark, all of the lights on the ceiling lit up, a strong vibration surged underneath John's feet, signifying the power surging through the massive carrier's wires, and all of the machines docked to remove the armor hummed. He looked up at the ceiling for a moment before looking back at Roland. "Thanks." The Master chief thanked to the AI who shrugged his shoulder in return. _"All I did w-w-was turn the energy saving engines b-b-b-back online. It's a good thing to, with all this sun the Infinify will never run outta pow-e-e-e-e-er."_ Roland therorized as his body lost it's shape.

John nodded as he went back to the drill that he had dropped earlier and held it up the the side of his head, near the exposed bolt that stuck out. He pulled the trigger and the drill bit began to rapidly detach the bolt. He resumed the same action on the other side before the bolt became loose as well. He placed the drill on the floor before gripping the helmet on both sides with his hands.

_"Halsey was r-r-r-r-ight... You are something special."_ Roland joked making Chief halt his actions at that familiar name said out loud.

_Halsey..._

"Halsey... as in Catherine Halsey?" John questioned slowly as he turned around to the AI with an emotionless voice. Catherine was top priority, formally though. He had needed to meet her to fix Cortana.

Roland nodded before continuing._ "Yeah, fr-o-o-o-om last I've heard she was in c-c-c-c-c-custody."_ Roland said before looking at Chief again with more seriousness. _"There's also something i-i-i-i-important you've gotta know."_ Roland claimed as his color switched to pure white for a moment and his actions became erratic _"Y-y-y-y-y-ou-_

Roland fazed out for a moment and Chief became increasingly anxious at this. He slowly gripped the helmet and tugged lightly once again. The helmet caught on the back of his skin of his head when he pulled it. He slowly began to twist it and eventually began to slide off the damaged helmet. His HUD was offline, the base of it was cracked, and the only accessory that properly worked on it were the lights. Other than that it was obsolete in every way.

Suddenly, Roland came to be once again before he started to static and flicker. _"...W-w-w-were betrayed."_ Roland then finally revealed as John yanked his helmet off with a click. Even though Roland had data photo's of John's real face and last name, he finally got a glimpse of John-117's face before him.

John wasn't a looker in all regards, but he had an awfully alluring appearance that made him stand out. He had very pale skin, nearly white as a ghost from constant years in his armor. Across his lip and above his eyebrow were two very distinguishable scars, and another one right beside his left eye. These were "reminders" to him about ducking when a needle shot from a Kig-Yar gets embedded beside you and not to be close to it.

He had very deep blue eyes that seemed to come out in the dark, kind of like they were glowing. His eyes seemed to have sunk into his skull and formed a bit of a shadow over them, giving him the appearance of a hardened skull. The dark rings around them came from seeing constant bloodshed and death, and not getting a normal nights sleep in decades. With a war going on every waking moment, sleeping wasn't very optional.

He had no hair since he had shaved it. Although there was the very small amount of stubble of brown hair beginning to grow after not shaving it for days. He hadn't shaved his hair in years. More than a few years ago in fact. On October 20, 2552 was the day he had gotten clean and eaten something. That was the day Cairo station was under attack after earth was discovered by the Covenant. He had shaved his head once he was suited for his new MJOLNIR Powered Assault armor/Mark VI. That was 5 years ago. But his hair didn't grow though while he was in cryosleep.

He had stone like jaw lacking any fat from constant vigorous training, and there were also a few noticeable scars on top of his left eyebrow in a downward jagged line. His eyes were shadowed from the light above but you could clearly see them gleam in the dark. He was staring at the helmet that had been on his head for almost 16 hours after the first Didact incident and rolled his thumb over the cracked hole on the visor.

To him this helmet symbolized defeat. The handmark that enveloped his helmet was Didact winning and overtaking him in battle, and the hole in the visor was John's loss. It would forever be a constant reminder to never get caught by Didact like that ever again. Even though it had only been minutes since it all happened, John's mind was still racing.

_"Betrayed?"_ John questioned in his mind not looking up but not truly knowing the feeling of the word. He knew he had a feeling something was off. While John knew the word, he was not familiar of it being used to him before. Never in his life had someone openly stab him in the back, let alone attempt to kill him from within the U.N.S.C. Though he shouldn't be surprised. He had killed so many for so long he was surprised though it took this long.

But then again, maybe it wasn't fully true. He didn't have a single negative leaving on anyone within O.N.I, or the Infinity.

In fact, he was nearly given the title of Admiral, by Admiral Hood himself. So another option could have been a malfunction. But a malfunction in his armor was irrelevant to him. He had worn his armor for a decade and it had never failed him... Not even once. It was like his personal solitude, his armor locking on him without his authorization was like saying the Didact claiming he was a pacifist.

It didn't add up.

_"Yeah, betrayed, stabbed i-i-i-n the back, sell out, kiss and tell, unmasked, double crossed, bambo-o-o-ozled, you were-_

"I get it..." John cut him off feeling a slow build up of bewilderment and anxiety. Someone would intentionally kill him and his team, put everyone inboard at risk, resulting in the Didact winning... But who?

John made more than enough enemies, but none of them came directly for him, just the UNSC. He went over to the armor placement bench and sat his destroyed helmet on the table, in time for repairs in the future of he could figure out to remove the polarized lens. Since he was without one good helmet he would need to either destroy it due o the wire damage and visor, or try his best to replace it. He stood still for a moment rethinking over what he was doing.

Before he looked back at Roland with a side glance and finally asked the question that was currently eating him alive.

"Who?" John said aloud. "Who is it?"

Roland placed his hands behind his back and finally revealed who was the culprit.

_"It was Del Rio." _Roland said perfectly fluent.

John felt his lower lip clench and his hands tightened around the edge of the metal bench.

Del Rio. The_ former_ captain of probably the largest man made craft ever built would intentionally kill his own troops after he left John on Requiem to die. Del rio was responsible for his teams demise and the grim fate of the universe now. How could one man decide the end of the galaxy like that? How could he? What was he planning?

A leading captain of the U.N.S.C turn against his own race like that in a matter of hours?

John had only known one deserter, and he was in the Spartan-II program. His details were very sketchy, but from what his teammates told him his name was once Soren-066. He was brought into the Spartan-II program as a child after his mother died brutally from his father's psychological problems. After his training on Reach he was given the regular Spartan-II augmentations.

But sadly he was one of the few to suffer from the risks of its dangerous procedure. He suffered from the muscular enhancement injections and the thyroid implant, which had caused his muscles to grow in ways that were rather painful and unforeseeable. He killed the doctors within the room before being arrested, claimed unfit for duty, and branded as a paper pusher. Story short, he became a traitor to the insurrectionists, broke into a major office where he stole confidential documents and begun selling them to the insurgents. Eventually he was caught, but he crashed landed on Reach during the covenant invasion...

But a body was never recovered that day. Leaving his fate unknown.

"The former captain?" John questioned without giving Roland so much as a glance as he stared down at the metal table with his smashed helmet.

_"Y-y-y-yes... That FORMER cap-p-p-tain...He wasn't caught in the composers blast though, he managed to set your armor to lock within 2 hours before use and u-u-u-used an escape po-o-o-o-od."_ The nearly dead AI said as he continued to flicker.

"He escaped?" John asked as he averted his full attention to Roland holding a new helmet with a glistening orange visor. He would start clean and forget here and now. His face was in a stone rage. Roland nodded making John furrow his eyebrows even further.

Del Rio... Responsible for humanities likely genocide had escaped on his own accord letting every occupant of the Infinity to meet a horrible end. That made John's inside turn as cold as ice. If he was this deranged to wipe out the Chief in exchange for nearly causing extinction to the human race, who knows what Del Rio was capable of. John's thought of Captain Del Rio was sour from the very beginning. He had held a professional level of respect for him, or at least tried to, but after several snide and belligerent comments toward him, John gave Del Rio his thought of the matter with only two simple words no solider should ever say to their superior officer.

Ever.

_"No sir." _

Never in his life had John indirectly disobeyed orders in any way. He knew the consequences of insubordination. He was ready. But that was nothing compared to what the Didact was going to do. Cortana was literally everything to him...

He had no family, no friends, no nothing... She was the only one there during almost everything that had happened in the last 7 years. He would disobey anyone for her any given day.

John cleared his throat. "Then we need to get in contact with ONI.. We have to plan for defensive measures when the Didact arrives." John said as he placed the new helmet on over his head and his HUD came to life.

_"I'm afraid it won't be that easy Chiefzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz."_ Roland said with a slight static at the end of of his sentence.

John stopped what he was doing and gave Roland his full attention. Roland straightened his posture and said. _"We're in an u-u-u-unknown part of the solar system where I-i-i-i can't get a signal to any co-o-o-olonies, or the government."_ Was Roland's broken reply with a nervous glance.

John however took in the information as he tightened the last screw into the side with the drill and observed the area for any nearby weapons among the wreckage. He still had Palmers rifle with 56 rounds, that should do, and he could come across more later.

"Then we'll... " He paused nearly forgetting that Roland was going to expire within the hour. "... I, have to look for help then. Are there any Pelicans ready for launch in the docking bay?" John asked trying to remember where the docking bay was and hoping that it was still functional. He wasn't sure of leaving one of the largest pieces of military hardware in the ocean... But he really had no choice. It was either do or die... And he would choose his way.

_"Is-is-is-is-is-is there anythin-g-g-g-g-g-g I can d-d-d-d-d-d-o?"_ Roland pressed seeming to be wanting to think of something else. John meanwhile shook his head and began to walk toward the near end of the opening in the infinity. He looked back at Roland and said. "Thanks, for everything." Roland nodded comfortingly. _"Glad to be of service..."_ John nodded discreetly in Roland's direction before he quickly began to ascend the side hull of the Infinity, by once again climbing cracks and bumps in the metal toward the upper floor. Leaving the AI to his fate less than 40 minutes and 30 seconds later...

XXXXXXX

John had located the docking bay which hadn't been severely damaged to his surprise. When he had entered the bay he was expecting many of the land terrain vehicles to be damaged or worse. He at least though the salt waters from the ocean outside would have breached the protective force field. Yet it didn't.

Many vehicles had shifted toward the left of the ship when it begun to sink. There wasn't any internal damage to the wiring systems if John needed to launch anything, but with the water it could prove to be a furthering problem in the future. The constructors for the Infinity made sure it had countermeasures in case it were to force land. That being an emergency power supply to all the housed vehicles in case of a power leakage.

The vehicles inboard ranged from hundreds upon hundreds of Pelicans, Hornets, Warthogs, Puma's, a couple of M312 Elephants, 2 M510 Mammoths, 6 M808B Scorpions, 17 Manti's, and almost an limitless supply of ammunition. _Almost_ though, since nothing would last forever. Especially something like ammunition. John would have to secure and analyze how much ammo was there on board since there was the option he could be castawayed here for awhile. But he was stocked and ready...

But that was sugar coating it. He quickly had to take facts. Everything was all over the place that it looked like a bomb went off and the solar energy generators could possiably burn up after extreme use. Everything he had listed would take him weeks to move it all out and do a proper recall. But that would have to wait. John had prepared a plan to mount the G79H-TC/MA Pelican, and locate any signs of civilization, try to contact O.N.I, and tell them of the current situation before it was too late.

John had finished moving several of the Pelicans to their respectable places and got a view of a mantis shining brightly by the massive wall on the far end of the bay. It would be useless now since the Infinity was in the ocean, but could be used as a line of defense against possible intruders if this planet was insurrectionist ruled. He also had to be catios since now that the Infinity was grounded it could be taken over by Covenant or Promethean knights. This thought only made John want to exit even faster.

After John selected his pelican he opened the hatch emitting a sharp hiss from it. He mounted inside the Pelican's rather small seat and begun to strap his seat belts, gaining 2 "clicks". He flipped the appointed switches from memory, activating it's engines. The Pelican's inner motors came to life as John felt the engines hum around him with a powerful burst. While John was preparing the engines he couldn't help but remember that dream he had with the pair of talking purple eyes. Right after everything happened so fast. Hagoromo wasn't very specific besides helping some kid.

"_P__illar of prophecy..." _John remembered from the dream. Now he would have dreams from time to time, but this dream had really no significance to him whatsoever. First he's told of a child, next he's told of some prophecy, then he wakes up on an unknown planet looking all fake and weird. John assumed he was suffering from the effects of the composer's ray knocking him out again.

That ray wan an absolute fear to him now. He loathed the mention of that weapon as it imprinted in his mind. Even though he was immune it, it was a cowards way out while everyone around him perished in the most unimaginable suffering way possible. It some ways it reminded him of the flood and it's grueling way of turning people into mindless savaging zombies. He had to thank the Liberian once again for letting him live though... But he knew that was impossible, because when he got back to earth he would rip the Didact's head off... Slowly.

John looked down at the plethora of controls in frustration since he was left with so many problems and so little resources to work with. And no feeling of hope inside of him.. It was his job to defend humanity yet he failed to do so.

John sharpened his gaze toward the opening force field in front of him, leading to the unknown planet.

With a push of a clutch, the Pelican's hover booster activated discharging a sharp blue flame from the engines, causing pelican lift off the metal flooring bay. The ferocious sound from it's engines stroke the walls since it was the only functioning thing there. The pelican than surged forward through the force field. The pelican surged through the air taking in more altitude. John observed the clean radiant blue sky, noting it still looked vivid as ever. Making John feel quite uneasy. He steered the Pelican a few degrees toward the left to get a better view of what had become of the the infinity and may have hopes of repairs.

If that sounded crazy.

It was indeed broken in half. Torn metal, hundreds of bits of steel alloy crowded the water but didn't float off. There were engine pieces embedded in the side hull as the ocean current rippled against the side. The Infinity was meant to be earth's last line of defense in case the covenant or Promethean invasion...But now it was nothing more than an absolute wreck. Billion of credits and numerous lives invested. Gone.

John lifted up the pelican over the clouds and made his first destination toward south, where he could slightly see land. To the normal naked eye it was nothing. But to John's eye it was miniscule. It was the closest point he could get to at the moment, so it would have to do.

And just like that, the pelicans engines screamed and John flew off...

Toward the Unknown.

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**TO BE CONTINUED...**

**AUTHORS NOTE: ****Please leave a Review/Constructive criticism/ or idea... They're needed. Any flamer will be ignored. ****So yeah.**

**-SHIPWRECK5897**


	3. The Ensuring conflict revealved

**DISCLAIMER/ I don't own Halo or Naruto**

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"_Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime."_

-Ernest Hemingway

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Chapter 3: The Ensuing conflict revealed

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John payed close attention to anything out of place, taking mental notes as he traveled above the endless clouds. He had repeatedly tried to gain a signal of any type from the Pelican's com channel, only to be met with static on the other end. He couldn't see past the clouds but the Pelicans scanners showed he was still above the ocean. He had to be cautious since he could be traveling into a no-fly zone. In No-fly zones you were usually given a fair warning before you ultimately got shot down.

The insurgents had still caused problems later in the war, even in his later career. They could very well be on this planet, keeping it as a secret hidden base. But he couldn't get ahead of himself at a time like this. It was too brash to think that far ahead and unprofessional. He had to maintain his thought process and calculate another approach to deal with the current situation if it came up. Earth's last stand against the Didact was a failure thanks to Del Rio for committing such a heinous act, and all life in the galaxy was again at risk of extinction. Thinking back to Del Rio's hostility that seemed to happen whenever the two exchanged words. He wished he could have ended Rio after he decided to leave him on Requiem for dead. But his act of insubordination would have automatically been labeled treason for killing a high ranking officer.

Most people would say 'you live and learn' but in John's case, he wasn't sure how he'd learn from it.

John paid close attention to the radar, making sure he wasn't being tailed or locked onto. He had observed nearly every com channel and searched the radio frequencies within miles, but couldn't get anything to respond besides the sound of static. John was never observant to these small details, but he could tell this was wrong. He couldn't lock onto a simple communication relay. Almost as if there weren't any to begin with.

Looking down at the controls and buttons that seemed to be an endless array of colors and shapes, John still couldn't get over the overall straight vivid line and shading of everything. It didn't appear real. It was almost becoming an action, that he would catch himself staring at something for an extended period of time. Whenever he tried to prove it was all just a dream, or some type of illusion he would be met with the same awakening feeling of realization.

Turning his attention back to the radar screen, an image holographed itself to life, showing he was quickly approaching land beneath the clouds. Taking this as an intuitive, he began to lower his altitude by decreasing the strength of the engine, and switching to a moderate speed. He then rotated the jets downward, causing him to enter hover mode while slowing up the speed. After he lifted a small plastic panel on the left-hand side and pressed the blue button making the Pelican halt, he began to rapidly descend from an altitude of 6000 ft. He then lowered directly into the cloud, causing the cockpit to enter nothing but pure darkness that seemed to consume the vessel.

It stayed dark inside the cockpit save for the buttons that lit up the tiny control room. The Master chief could see clearly in the dark, but couldn't see anything past the clouds though.

John was afraid of a few things, but the darkness wasn't one of them. After hundreds of missions involving diving into pitch black trenches, camping in forests, or scaling down sketchy cities filled with insurrectionists, John grew accustomed to the dark. His skin would be proof to that.

After being in the dark for 2 minutes he became rather skeptical of what he was in for. The texture of this world, the fleeting hope from finding a way off, and those purple ringed eyes from Hagoromo continued to linger in his mind, and made him try to deduce what he was going to be confronting. He was very unaware of what was coming to him in the next following hours, but Cortana's memory of telling him to survive, was far stronger than that.

Being in the dark made him think. Like a light illuminating, he just remembered earlier from Roland's description that Halsey was in custody to O.N.I. Meaning that all this time he spent fighting, killing, and surviving the covenants and Promethean onslaught, was worthless. She was never on Earth in the first place. His face burned in rage from that realization that he had wasted time, precious and irreplaceable time, all for nothing.

This made John feel a whole new level of regret that rose like a geyser inside of him. His destination was directly towards Earth when Cortana revealed she was dying. But the real question rose to the top. Why was Halsey in custody in the first place? John knew she had broken laws and could've faced retribution for it, yet she had gone unscathed for almost 30 years. He never thought of it, but he knew something like that would catch up eventually. He never once questioned his recruitment into the spartan-II program. Not even once. Never thought about it, never questioned it, and would never consider it. He found the opportunity interesting, and took the chance to become one. Or rather accepted it since he really didn't have much of a say. He wanted to become the best, to win.

It really meant everything at the time. While he may not remember his family, his home, or even his real last name, but he would never forget who he was. A Spartan. A super soldier who dedicated their life to protect humanity from anyone or anything.

A Spartan...

...

...

...

But he was left with the biggest question to his concluding problems. His sense of what he was and what he was meant to fight for. Something

Was he man? Someone with something everyone fought for. Choice and reason and an endless array of fair chances? Or machine a machine, a living less object destined to follow a certain pattern or order without fault? Cortana asked him that once, about figuring out which one was the machine. In the beginning he thought of it as some type of joke. Later on though it became more serious. In hindsight though, he had expected a explanation to the assumption but was left at a blank. Cortana was an artificial intelligence cloned from a gifted mind. She wasn't human. John was born to a mother and father. He was.

Cortana had personality, ambition, standards, and a sense of humor.

John didn't have much of one, his standards consisted of training in quiet places and thinking. And his sense of humor only revolved around the task at hand.

Cortana was more of a human than he was, and he never would be. No matter how much he tried.

He was so in tune in thought that he realized he was nearly toward the ground. Looking at the radar projection screen, he could slightly see a thick grayish mist outside of the ships windows that became rather moist from the cloud. He was currently at 120 feet above ground level and continuing to rapidly lower. John flipped a to keep the ship on standby, where this action instantly halted the Pelicans lowering gauge. It stopped in mid-air, giving John a full visual of the unknown land before him for the very first time.

It was a bog. Some hills here and there with a few trees covered in moss growing. There was a very thick dense fog surrounding the area, almost like a sheet. He could slightly make out the outlines of mountains in the great distance. The mist was so thick it became hard to see anything, even with his enhanced vision. He could make out very tall rocky hills with shrubs and moss covering them... He could also make out small fires in the distance next to what appeared to be tall thin buildings. Seeing that there wasn't a point in trying to see with his eyes, he resorted to using the Pelican's underside camera's which was equipped with an enhanced lenses ability.

Turing it on, the camera that was located on the underside of the Pelican came to life as a red light activated beside it's lens. John waited a moment for the camera to initiate its setting before he clicked on the zoom option. The camera grew a bit longer, but the picture on the small screen grew larger.

Now that it's picture was more clear but not nearly enough to make out anything, he had to do was turn down the resolution to give him a bit more confirmation. After doing this he got a more clearer image of a building covered in vegetation with small single windows. This was all John needed to see before he turned the camera off and began to fully set the Pelican into landing. Thoughts were rolling through his mind on how to approach the matter and how long he would be to his destination.

He wondered if this planet was habitable, or even had life on it to begin with. If there was then his first order of business was to locate some type of police force and hopefully get in contact with his superiors to give out a full report of the Infinities destruction, and Captain Lasky's death.

The Pelicans landing gear lowered itself outward and finally touched the wet soft ground. It sank into the mud as it wasn't that very sturdy. The engines closed their ports and then began to shut down for the first time in over an hour. The day seemed normal time.

If John could tell by the suns current location, he'd say it was about 11AM from the angle of the sun when he was above the area's clouds. John unclasped the seatbelts clip before turning his radar on once more to see if anyone was around. The tracking radar was also in connection to the distress relay, and once it corresponded with a superluminal communications relay he could attempt to begin a link with nearby UNSC data. He looked on the white screen, hoping for a proper signal while analyzing it for any lifeforms. Be it friend or foe.

In a matter of seconds, hundreds of life signatures were detected approximately 6 miles east behind the oddly shaped buildings, but not a single signal. John took this as the green light as he got out of his chair and exited through the back lowering hatch.

After the back hatch lowered itself to the ground which granted John a walkway, he stepped out and took a look around the area.

Currently he stood before a vast foggy area with about 26 feet of vision. What wasn't shielded by the intense fog consisted of muddy grounds with a collection of puttles that ranged in the thousands. Like an infinity of glistening reflections. A dense blanket of rotting wood tree stumps surrounding him, and a few stones. He also took notice of scorch marks on the stones beside him that sizzled silently. Loud enough for his sensitive ears to pick up though.

He quickly stepped out of the rear opening before walking over to a rock and observing it. There were burn marks on a rock yet there wasn't anything besides that burned. What had caused it was unknown to him, but he was thankful it wasn't plasma residue.

Something shiny caught his left eye standing in the mud. He looked down at the object before seeing what looked like a straight knife, embedded into the soft moist ground. Reaching tenderly over for it and clasping around the handle. He pulled it out of the mud before holding it eye level. The blade was straight, around 8 inches long and had bandages wrapped around the grip. There a single opening at the very end in the shape of the ring and the blade itself had a pointed diamond shaped end. The weapon seemed like it was utilized for close assassination from how light and durable it was.

Studying it closer he noted it was made out of some sort of lightweight metal but he couldn't identify it. Something red caught his vision that seeped through his Kevlar gloves. Turning his hand over he saw there was also blood around the bandaged grip of the blade. Fresh even.

This didn't look good in his mind because when their was blood, death would surely follow.

Chief dropped the odd knife to the ground letting off a detectable "smack" in the sloshy mud puddle. Standing up and turning his attention back toward his original destination, he gained an unwelcoming feeling about that area. He felt as if something troubling was happening. He also noticed how quiet it was today. That wasn't very normal to him. There were no distant sounds of animals or anyone but the deep bellowing in the wind around him.

He looked back at his ship that sat there in the mud, collecting soft drops of water before thinking advancing toward it, intending of grabbing a few weapons for defense just in case the foreigners in the nearby district were hostile. Walking toward the Pelicans right side underneath the wing, he came upon a black lock box attached to the side hull. Clicking the side clips open and flipping the lock in the center to the side, he pulled the shelves apart and let his eyes gaze at the contents inside.

There was were BR85HB battle rifle, a MA5C assault rifle fully loaded, a M90A assault shotgun, a M739 light machine gun. What caught his sight though was the powerful M41 SSM Jackhammer rocket launcher that laid along the place holders to the very far right side. Along the bottom in a dozen holders were a collection of anti-tank grenades with a single detonator charge on the right. On the very far left side facing the rocket launcher was a white medical kit that contained a canister of biofoam, a few stitch kits, and one tube of polypseudomorphine.

John took off Sarah's rifle before replacing it with the BR65HB battle rifle. The fog would prove to be a problem if he was caught in it. Better to take something with a better accuracy in the dense fog in case of hostiles.

John placed the battle rifle on his backs magnetic straps before seeing an Magnum. He grabbed the Magnums handle and studied it. It was one of the newly issued magnums, the M6H PDWS magnum. This one was specifically designed for medium long distance range and had a more proved scope that reduced blurriness.

He loaded a fresh clip into the chamber and placed it on his right thigh's magnetic clasp. Reaching down in the lockbox he grabbed 2 anti-tank grenades while carefully making sure not to put his fingers near the rings, and attached them on the right side of his waist. But before shutting the weapon box he grabbed 6 magazines for the battle rifle, and 12 detachable magazine clips for the magnum. The M225 Semi-Armor-Piercing High-Explosive (M225 SAP-HE) is a 12.7x40mm rounds used could take someones arm off if shot correctly at the bone.

After placing them in his back loading compartment he shut the weapons box and locked it, making sure no one could break into it. He stepped backwards and turned toward the city in the distance. He didn't know what he was in for, but that didn't faze him as he began walking towards it in hope. His mind was set on only one goal.

It was his prime directive and nothing would stand in its way no matter what.

John then disappeared in the dense fog...

And was about to regret that decision.

After almost an hour of walking and finding nothing, Chief began to ease his observations of his surroundings in the area. He tried to look more closely for anything else inconspicuous or drew attention to itself. Earlier he came across an abandoned shack with shrines around it. There were strange symbols on them as well and the shrines there were figures being depicted in various poses holding hand signs. He tried to decipher them from memory but couldn't remember anything related towards them.

He thought first it was covenant affiliated or now Storm language, but he casted that theory out since the covenant didn't appreciate human memorabilia related items. He couldn't jump to conclusions too quickly now with the amount of danger he could be walking into. All he needed to do was carry on with his task on location with civilization.

As John continued walking through the damp soil his mind began to wander as he thought he saw some shapes within the mist. His scanner wasn't picking up any lifeforms for some reason within the 25 meters and the silence was still defining.

When getting closer to what appeared to be a road, John found out that those shapes he began to see were houses. A whole collection of them several yards away from his current position. Stopping for a moment he stopped to turn the safety off his gun and turn on the compatible flashlight on his rifle. He leveled the rifle forward as he spotted a thick forest next to said houses on the right. The green leaves were at their blooming point, just weeks away from fall from his point of view. These trees could provide excellent cover in case of danger.

John stepped closer to one of the houses until he noticed something was off. Walking dead center of the road and seeing many housed that looked like stores, it would appear that he was currently stepping in what looked like a small town. It looked completely deserted and lacked any form of life. A plethora of junk corroded the road. There were odd tracks in the soil. Not to mention countless footprints that had puttles of water filling them.

It looked like whoever lived here was in a hurry to leave, but why though.

There were a few buildings further out and what looked like homes lined the road were more than less in shape due to the cracks and several massive chunks falling off. John walked over to one of the structures to investigate it while keeping in a crouch. The house was 60 by 40 feet and was made of some sort of clay material. It had regular green wooden roof with pointed edges outward, 6 square 12x12 windows, and one simple door. Around the home's garden was a 3 foot fence, and in the garden was a 14x3 yard consisting of grass and a few small tree's. The soil around the tree's base looked untouched. Getting over the wooden gate and across the yard he saw that the front door was wide open.

Looking closer at the doors frame he took note that had the hinges were ripped out, making him suspect someone might have forced their way inside. He stepped past a broken window and studied the building. Nothing seemed wrong besides the fact the door was blasted into. When he looked down on the wooden porch he was standing on he saw something that made him on high alert.

_Blood._

John saw a dense trail leading inside the house's main living room. He stepped inside the dark house and looked around the room. There were a few pieces of furniture flipped over, and some broken in many places. The light fixtures that were once on the ceiling but now the floor were shattered. John followed the glass pieces and saw a corpse in the middle of the room. Chief gained an unwary feeling as he stepped carefully forward and looked down at the un-moving persons form. It was indeed a man from the structure of his frame, and it appeared the rigor mortis was kicking in by the man's stiff hands and knees.

The man was facedown on the wooden floor with a pool of blood collecting at his side from an open wound on his back. His skin on the back of his neck was becoming very pale as time passed on by. When John paid closer analysis to the man wound located on his back, mostly around the center spine, he saw what looked like needles sticking out. John knelt down on one knee and carefully plucked one of the needles out easily that held smears of blood on the end.

The needle was for a type of penetration, not for injecting, and that was all he could deduce from it at the moment. It looked as if it were thrown manually since there was a lack of burn marks around the lower base of it. This sounded impossible though. John thought it was crazy for a moment but whoever killed this man with a needle hit a very vital part in the man's spine by simply throwing a needle. Unless the man was a throwing expert with the best hand-eye coordination in the world, this was going to be more difficult to figure out.

John grasped the man's stiff shoulder and turned him over to face him. He saw the man had a few bruises over his closed eyes, along several small scratches with dry blood seeping out. Indicating he was fighting before he died. He wore a simple gray sleeveless garb and a dark vest with small pouches around the waist and on his upper chest. Chief checked all of the pockets but didn't find anything useful besides an empty wrapper and a wire.

What stuck out about him the most though was the metal head band wrapped around his forehead. The piece of stainless steel had very small scratches, but had four deep engravings and several almost invisible small chips on the side. John didn't know what they meant but buried it in the back of his mind as he stood up.

Under the man was a cream colored carpet on the floor with splotches of blood on it, probably from him though. This house was owned by a family considering he saw pictures on the wall and some on the floor but were shattered. There must have been a fight in here and considering the corpse on the floor somebody won and could very well still be in the area. But out of looking at the simplicity of the entire room with everything livable, John didn't see a scrap of anything technological related anywhere.

This home lacked any proper air conditioning or ventilation from looking at the ceiling. No sounds being emitted to support this. The light fixtures were something that belonged in a museum from the overall design, and from glancing over the counter and into the kitchen. There was a simple oven and stove in the far corners of the kitchen that also didn't look up to date. Normal ovens or even microwaves had glowing key pads and a different sets of lights for levels of heat. There weren't any located on either of them.

Everything looked so behind the current time.

John steadily walked over to the fireplace when something caught his vision that was a small sparkle. When he looked down into the ashes he saw a piece of metal sticking out at the edge of the bricks. Reaching down and picking it up by the end, Chief tugged on the object and something came up above the ashes. It was a sword. It wasn't a curved blade but rather a straight one that had been broken in the middle. The handle was wrapped in burnt bandages and had a note attached to it. When John ripped the note off the handle... It made no sense to him. From his point of view the lettering seemed it was caused by the fires heat, so he discarded both the useless sword and note back into the fireplace.

He stepped backwards from the fireplace against the wall, but didn't notice that his foot inched closer to a photo frame on the floor. He stepped on the crushed glass, turning it to dust under his massive weight, and the sound alerted him. He looked down to see the frame he crushed covered by his boot. He lifted his foot off and bent over to pick it up. He eyed the photo underneath the broken glass. In it was a simple looking family. A man and a woman smiling while pushing a small boy on a swingset. The sun was in the background, giving the normal blue sky a dark orange color with the clouds in front. John looked at the photo for a moment longer, taking in the smaller details before noticing the man on the floor somehow looked similar to the man in the photo.

Same hair, same body frame, same facial structure, it was uncanny really.

He must have had a connection to the house...

He dropped the photo carelessly to the floor before his scanner picked up a life off to the far left. From 16 feet behind him outside the house, he heard some feet slamming into the ground outside. Someone was rapidly approaching the house and John could feel his finger barely touch the trigger in concentration.

John let his breathing become silent before standing aside from the door. He needed answers and he needed them now. Waiting for the newcomer didn't take long, the person who came through the door was someone in gray garb, a similar grey jacket vest with pockets, black open toed sandals, a single white bandage wrapped around his left thigh, and the same headband with 4 lines. He had black hair with soft skin tone covered in muck.

Chief walked forward and said in a full authoritative tone. "Halt."

The man looked up and saw a towering _thing_ in armor holding an odd object in it's hands. It had one orange eye without a pupil, but the man stared a bit longer at the thing. At first he thought it was his eyes playing tricks, maybe too much running without water, but it took about 2 seconds to register in his mind that it was truly real. The monster stood before him, unmoving like a statue, not even blinking. His eye's widen in disbelief before he stumbled backwards a bit before roaring incoherently. _"__Dono yōna jigoku no monsutā! _(What the hell, its a monster!)_"_

John stopped at his words dumbly, not being able to understand it at all. His translator had been removed after Cortana used the Forward Unto Dawn's nano-machines to upgrade his armor, and since the translator took too much room with the armor plug-ins, it was subsequently taken out and scrapped. It mentally threw him off for a few seconds of what the man said. He decided to say something without thinking and warning.

John cleared his thinking before saying again. "I'm Spartan-117 of the UNSC and I nee-

John never finished as the man lunged forward with a kunai in hand.

John saw the man reach down for the blade. He first saw the man's hand blur to his back before yanking it out.

His reflexes kicked in and he sidestepped the man's attack, but the man twirled the dark knife skillfully before attempting to jamm it in Chief's neck. Chief's hand swung up and gripped the man's wrist before looking at the man in the face and threatening. "This is a warning, drop it or I'll break it."

This hit deaf ears as the man attempted to chop at chiefs neck with free hand, but chief let the chop hit him since it wouldn't hurt him. Hitting him was almost equivalent to striking the hull of a titanium alloy battleship with your bare hand.

The inevitable outcome was a rather painful ending.

The man roared as he felt a massive throbbing pain forming on his arm from attempting to injure the armored giant, but failing miserably. John decided to end this before the man brought reinforcements or do anything else. He kicked the man back in the stomach making him double over in pain as he let the man go. He brought the battle rifle out and lifted it towards the mans head. The man looked back at John with pain mixed with anger in his eyes as he attempted to say. "This is your fina-

The man's right hand went down toward a pouch behind him. That was John's final warning as he pulled the trigger.

The left part of the mans chest exploded with blood from the three firing round burst that cut through the man's chest like butter. From such close range he flew back slamming into the wall with a loud "thud". When he looked down at his now bleeding chest, his face went from pained filled, to a surprisingly calm. He saw all of the precious moments in his eyes vacate into nothingness. Thoughts such as what he had eaten this morning to his sisters face flashed again and again. He remembered little things such as writing in a memoir the night before as he slid down the wall creating a blood trail down the chalk white paint. His bottom hit the wooden floor, before he slumped over on his right side and exhaling his final breath before expiring.

The barrel of Chief's gun still smoked like a chimney as he observed the man he just killed. It had been years since John had taken the life of another human but not his first. Early in his career he fought against humans naming themselves the Insurrection. He had killed numerous people during that time, but he had spent the last thirty long years fighting against the Covenant, the flood, and finally the Promethean's.

Since their DNA was human based they could also be classified as human. Not to mention there was that one paranoid marine on Installation 04. When John entered the control room the unknown marine at the time fired at him... Numerous times. He attempted to console the mad marine but this action was futile as the marine begun to slowly dwell further into madness. He left the man and after a minute he heard a gunshot, when he returned to the scene he found the marine with a bullet wound on the side of his head. The death of his team by the Flood's clutched ravaged his mind beyond repair, and to the point he couldn't take it anymore.

To John, the marines suicide could have somehow been prevented and his death was on his hands.

In John's mind though, the Promethean's, were nothing but mindless machines that needed to be put down for good. He never fought against killing, but he simply had to. No matter the options. He never disagreed with it or liked it. But he took the shot and got over it.

John saw that something was coming from the same route again, and it was unidentified.

"_JIN! Doko ni imasu ka? Wareware wa, misshon no mae ni modotte shutoku suru hitsuyō ga arimasu!_(JIN! Where are you, we need to get back before the mission ends!)_"_ A voice through the door called loudly. John saw on his HUD someone appear along with 5 other unknown blimps. Very slowly he pressed himself against the wall. He used the shadows to cover himself and planned to exit through the back and cover some ground. Then after that he woul head into the forest he came across earlier for recon, away from any hostiles. His scanners were beginning to to pick up more and more presence now in the front yard, this was he time to leave.

John's mind meanwhile was trying to assess the situation. He had just killed someone with enhanced speed in self defense and he appeared he wasn't alone. And his gun had more than likely given out his location when he shot it off.

John turned his head toward the right and saw a dark hallway with no lights except for down the hall. He walked calmly as possible toward the hall before crouching down and keeping his guard up as he continued down the hall slowly. He made it towards the end of the hall before spotting a window at the very end to the right side. Inching his way to the window while aiming where the light from outside was entering, he also made sure to keep his movements slow on the creaking wooden floors.

_"__Watashitachiha... Suna no patorōru wa chikai oto no shita ni taizai suru hitsuyō ga arimasu.(We need to stay below the sound... Suna's patrols are near_.)_"_

John still didn't understand the language these people spoke, but the voice came directly from outside the house. John had two options now, and it was run or fight the oncoming men that didn't sound or portray themselves as friendly.

He didn't know what the policy was to this nation, however, he was already in a heap of trouble for killing one of their men. Even though the person attacked first there were certain policies he had to uphold to. It could go down seriously with the leaders of this nation. Even if it was UNSC regulations of killing an unarmed attacker, it would create more trouble for Johns case. The higher ranking officials in ONI would be very displeased and possibly reprimand him heavily for his mistake.

He could hear the footsteps on the front wooden porch now as it got closer toward the doors frame. Thinking quickly, John reached down toward the right side of his waist for an anti-tank grenade. His hand wrapped around the base of it before he slowly pulled it off the magnetic strip. He held it in his right hand while his rifle sat in his left. Crouching lower to the floor, he saw that the home was soon being filled with a few men who were only feet away. Gasps where heard in the room followed by a tones laced with panic. Soon an angry yet unspoken yell sounded.

John inserted his finger through the metallic ring as he felt the air become completely silent. His new plan was to defend himself if necessary and make a break to the forest. This simple search mission became a live or-

Something happened at that very instant though. All John could hear was a tremendous boom that shook the house violently like an earthquake. John, in the heat of the moment nearly dropped his grenade with his thumb still in the ring. He managed to clutch onto it before it could drop. Dust rained from the ceiling and landed on chief's armor, as he stood up, put the grenade back on his waist. He began hearing yelling turning into screams outside_. "Sono machibuse (The ambush)!" _Followed by grunts and the sound of metal cutting flesh. On his motion tracker he saw two or more people vanish.

Then there was the sound of flowing water, like the ocean was right outside the house. John could hear the ripping waves hit the house as if a tsunami formed. John saw that the house would collapse if he wasn't careful, but something him out. He looked down before seeing water running over the floor boards and around his boots. This was ver surprising indeed as the window behind him shattered. He ducked instantaneously as a barrage of star shaped shuriken flew through the window behind him and embedded themselves in the wall down the hallway. One managed to hit him on the back of his shoulder, but it bounced harmlessly off. John stood back up quickly and took cover next to the window before activating his scanners motion detector.

HUD:25 hostiles

John peaked passed the edge of the windows frame and got a glimpse of a flaming explosion that shook the home once again. Memories of the war spurred in John's head, almost like poring a vat of molten lead down his spine. He had a feeling he had stumbled upon either a dispute between neighbors or an attack by foreigners since the language spoken didn't make sense at all to him. Or was it a war? John knew the last option was to become involved with foreign affairs since this was none of his business, but right now it would be considered self-defense.

He tried to calculate a clear route and objective in case the foreign nation took notice of him, but something was very wrong with this battle outside that was beginning bugging him. He had been expecting the house he hid in to be hit by an artillery shell, rippled by high caliber rounds, smothered by bullets, or hear just anything gun related. Where were the sounds of gunfire? While some battles had silenced weapons or even the sound of plasma blasters going off, he didn't hear anything reminiscing firearms in the slightest.

That explosion didn't even sound like a grenade it sounded home made even. John however stopped this thought when the same shaped blade came whizzing through the air, making a cutting sound, and pierced the wall next to him. He turned his head and noticed it nearly chinked him by a few inches. This knife looked the same from the one earlier he had found in the mud, and this time it had a note attached to it.

John couldn't read it but decided to ignore it. He didn't know though how bad of an idea that was...

The note began to smoke before starting to flash like a sparkler, John took this as a warning before taking several steps back and take cover in a hurried haste with his boots smacking in the mud. The blade began to sparkle uncontrollably this time before it was too late to do anything

If John didn't have a death wish, but he would've killed himself at the thought of an exploding piece of paper. The force of the explosion threw John like a rag doll through the plaster walls as if they were paper, before he flew outside and landed in the mud.

John's armor dwindled from the flaming explosions power, and his armor was 63% level. John shrugged off the bomb's blast that nearly blew him up, before sitting up and seeing the unknown men in similar outfits walking toward the destroyed house_."__Watashitachiha, sai gurūpu o toru hitsuyō ga arimasu_!( We need to take a regroup!)_"_

John still didn't know what these men were saying, although he would admit had heard the language before somewhere. John decided to stand very still while letting the men pass him into the home. He looked at his scanner again and saw all the passers were all directly on the left of him several yards away inside the home. If he could keep a low profile he might be able to slip past them and towards his Pelican. John lifted his armored hands out of the mud and attempted secured his rifle...

His rifle... John reached behind toward his back the battle rifle...

His hand grabbed nothing. 

He must have dropped it inside the house when he was caught in the bombs blast radius. John made sure his grenades were secured by grazing his hand on his waist. He reached for his magnum on his side but felt nothing as well. He looked toward the left and saw it sank into the mud up to the nozzle. John dipped his hand in the thick mud and pulled it out.

He felt something hit his palm and felt that it was his rifle's end stock. He grabbed a hold of it's stock before pulling it out of the mud. It coated it completely. He stepped up in a kneeling position, looking over his rifle that seemed to be glued on the mud.

He swayed his hand over the side and took massive of globs off. Looking over and linking it up to his HUD, he saw that it was at 70% of operation. It would have to do for now as he clipped the rifle on his back before taking his sidearm out off of his thigh. He brought it up to his face and looked it over, before seeing a glob of mud had entered into the barrel, and this could have potentially gone deeper in the chamber.

It could still properly function but the bullets wouldn't be as accurate or could possibly veer off course. John looked up back at the house approximately 46 feet from his sitting position. He was skeptical of leaving his weapon behind since they could find it and track it back to him. He thought his overall incognito nature was at his best since no one had seen him, minus that one inside the house... But he couldn't travel without it since the Pelican was halfway across the bog, nearly an hour away, and he couldn't detect any weapon cache's nearby.

Not even a firearms bench that was deposited in nearly every colonized world in every town center.

This only added up to his suspicion.

Ever so slowly, John stood up out of the mud, clipped the magnum to his thigh and heard more explosions in the distance while seeing orange glows within the mist. He could see more blimps appear directly in front of him on his HUD scanner and coming in rather quickly. John quickly ran to the side of the home and leaned near a good portion of the wall that still stood.

He looked at his scanner and saw the men were around 15 meters forward and continuing to move on in the opposite direction into the woods. John took this as the clear and jumped up over the wall like a spring. His feet pressed against nothing but broken board, rubble, and glass that let off a loud crash when he landed. John looked through where he was exactly when the note exploded. It wasn't every day you saw a piece of paper blow up like a grenade.

He looked back at his motion scanner and saw two people were only a few yards behind him in town. _"__Watashi wa, wareware wa sorera o ushinatta so no jikan o negatte imasu. Wareware wa modotte soko ni korosa re ni chikakatta_.(I hope we lost them that time. We were close to being killed back there.)_"_ A woman's voice said in the distance, _"__Happyōde wa, karera wa ishi o hōki shinai nodarou ka?_(Suna won't give up will they?)_"_

John dropped down in cover, before remembering there was a window behind him, granting a running chance to escape from the men and women fighting.

It was getting too heated in this area for him, he had to formulate a new approach.

_"__Darekaga koko ni ita!_(Someone was here!)_"_ male voice called getting closer to chiefs location... John mentally prepared himself for a fight since he began seeing more blimps appear. _"__Anata wa don'na suna o mitsukemashita ka? Matawa ANY seizon-sha! ?_"(Did you find any Suna? Or any Survivors!?)

John could hear the voices right outside the house now again, and his motion tracker sowed him they were getting closer to his spot. He quickly made his way over to the open window but something crunched under his boot, he looked down to see he had stepped on the glass from the window and caused it to crack under his weight, and that could have alerted anyone depending on how good their hearing was.

He saw the HUD scanner move slightly blurry and all the blimps disappeared. Only for the HUD scanner to recapture it.

They were right above him.

John whirled around only to see the expressions of two men and one woman. The woman had dark brown hair, brown eyes, wore a light tan outfit that was skin tight, brown boots, a headband with a strange marking on it like an upside down hourglass. The two men looked at the muddy spartan with wonder, as well as shocking alarm.

The first man was slightly built, had brown hair as well only with gray eyes, a dark vest with a red sash, black pants, black sandals, and a sleeveless shirt.

The last man had a dirty blond hair color with a gray shirt, blue sandals, and filthy thick pants.

John's mental alert was high and his arms became stiff at his joints, he looked at them while keeping his movement still, waiting for their first move.

He also wanted to mention that the peoples eyes were exceptionally larger for some reason.

_"__Hei! Jibun o tokutei suru... Anata wa, sekai de dono yōna mono ga arimasu! Samurai? _(Hey! Identify yourself... What in the world are you!? A samurai?)_" _The first man yelled, making John wish he knew what he was speaking, but the tone he was using was anything but amicable.

The second man scanned over John's form, before unsheathing a long sword from his thigh eliciting a grinding metal, signaling John he was going to attack him.

_"__Sore wa, akuma no shōkanda! _(It's a demon summons!)_" _With that determined in his mind, the man jumped down with a high strike and John was about to retaliate before he saw his scanner, Or rather showing him that no one was truly there.

When about to engage with any type of enemy like Covenant he was always told by his drill instructors, "To never let his eyes determine his actions" since the naked eye could always be easily swayed and fooled. Retracting his assaulting motion he let the man swing down on top of him.

As he expected, the man passed right through him. John saw someone coming from behind on his scanner and spun quickly while pointing his rifle. He saw the man who had attacked earlier, was right behind him. He held a sadistic grin as he was armed with a knife rushing at him.

John raised his battle rifle and let the bullets ring through the mist filled valley.

The man saw a single bright flash and that was it for him. He had no idea what had hit him.

Whatever it was, it felt like a massive heated punch shot out of hell's gate. He was hit in the stomach, doubling him over and causing him to kneel while trying to keep calm. He lifted his hand up to his face to rub the sweat away from his vision, only to smear blood over his face from his palm. Looking up at the muddy armored man with blood on his face, he saw another flash.

He was hit on the side of his head making blood spray from the back of his skull and causing his left eye fly out and his right one to roll back into his head. He flew backwards on his back in the moist mud with a dense splash.

John turned around to hear something quick, like a animal about to yell out in warning but he couldn't properly make it out correctly. He could hear the soft patter of wind picking up significantly before all of a sudden, he was nearly thrown off his feet by a massive gust of wind. It screamed past his head and ears, whooshing beyond his frame like the torrent out of a hurricane.

John was beginning to lose his balance but kept his feet firmly placed and stuck himself deep in the mud. He looked on his scanner and saw someone on his left. Closer, he saw the woman who stood just 12 yards away with her red lips puckered, and was blowing the wind out of her mouth.

"What the?" John whispered out loud not understanding what he was seeing. This woman was spewing a torrent of air out of her lungs that could rival a jet taking off at full blast. Not only was this humanly impossible, but it went against all physics themselves all together.

John didn't know what to do until the torrent of wind stopped and the woman began to pant. She placed her hands on her knees and the man looked at him with narrowed eyes. John instinctively raised the shot and took it at the man who was struck in the throat through the small reticle.

The man's arms flailed out as he quickly fell to the ground, grasping his neck with slippery fingers, and hoping to stop the flow of blood escaping his fresh wound, but this action made it worse as it began to go through his windpipe and enter into his lungs.

The woman beside him had only seen the man raise the metal board and pointed it at the man. Faster than anything she had ever seen her partner was hit. Almost blidingly though. She widened her eyes and screamed at the sight.

John, meanwhile pulled his foot out of the mud, and looked toward the woman who began to do something with her hands. At first it appeared to look like some type of sign language, but nothing John had ever seen before.

She kept her hands moving, almost at super speed, but John eyes could follow her motions since it appeared slower to him. The things she was forming though made no sense to him, but it seemed familiar though. Like he'd seen it somewhere before. John took a few steps back while loading a new magazine and said. "Your going to be next until you give up."

The woman yelled violently with rage filled expression. _"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!"_ She took a massive huff through her mouth, filling her up her lungs and making her chest heave in impossible proportion until the unthinkable happened.

Fire came from her mouth and through her lips like a flamethrower

She blew fire. Not just fire, but a massive ball of flames.

The flaming ball flew over to John like a comet almost is if it were speeding through outer space. John could have dodged it easily, but didn't since it wouldn't hurt him. When the fireball engulfed him, he couldn't properly see anything for a few seconds as the flames engulfed his vision.

It was so bright he nearly closed his eyes from the intense brightness. But due to the helmets adjustable brightness based on the light perception, John was able to see everything happen before him.

After 4 seconds of nothing but pure bright orange and yellow flames dancing across his armor, it stopped.

This made John blink softly behind the orange visor in retaliation.

He saw the land around was scorched black and turned the mud into a hard burnt dry ground. The woman was twelve feet away with a perplexed expression.

How did this thing survive almost 3000 degrees with nothing so much as a burn? She stared at him a minute longer before looking down at her comrade who layed their silently, obviously dead. She looked down at him a moment before saying out loud aggressively, completely drained of chakra. "_Nē... U~eikuappu.. Anata wa kokyū shite imasu ka?_(Hey... Wake up.. Are you breathing?)"

She then sat down next to him, trying to gain his attention but failing. John was deciding whether to kill her or not, but it looked like nature was taking it's course on her mind. She looked dangerously fatigued and about ready to pass out. It would be merciful to put her out of her misery. So with a steady grip, John leveled his attack rifle, and was about ready to pull the trigger when out of the corner of his eye he saw something. A silver line racing until-

The side of the woman's neck was pieced by a silver needle. John had seen it too but wasn't quick enough. This caused her to erupt in a fit of gags as blood to ran down the side of her neck. She begun to choke as she tasted her own blood pool in her mouth like a river.

John saw a few blimps appear on his HUD, and saw a similar man appear the same way earlier. Just out of no where from a puff of smoke in a second.

The women fell into the mud laced ground, still gasping for air. She reached over with her blood covered hand and touched the face of her ally... Before closing his eyes. The woman didn't notice the man behind her reached for a blade in a pouch, kneel down next to her... And stabbed her.

Yet again, another man appeared in a puff of smoke. Questions were growing in his mind as he continued to see life defying things happen. He had seen a massive worms negotiate with him in the destruction of the Halo ring, seen a god awakened and defeat him, alien genocide, machine planets, infected marines from the flood, and survival resulting in his life flashing before his eye on numerous occasion.

But everything in the he had seen in the last 3 hours was beginning to take a toll on his mind. Everything that had happened was too much. John didn't notice the group of twenty or more men and women all wearing similar outfits appear behind him. They all shared the same headband with 4 identical lines.

He didn't turn around but heard one of them say. _"__Ranku! Hatsugen!_ (Rank! Speak up!)_" _John had enough of this.

The people couldn't speak a lick of English, many of them were dying infront of him, and he wasn't gaining any information. He would be better off on his own. From everything he saw in the last couple of hours was that this wasn't his planet. He was leaving this place for good and wouldn't spare a second looking back at it.

In most ways he would blast his ways through and kill anyone who attacked him, but do to while seeing unexplained phenomena events was making John rethink his overall strategies. He needed to obtain some information of what he had seen and how it could be useful to him

He took a few steps foward over the hardened burnt mud, making it crumble into ashes and began walking toward the direction of his Pelican, not paying any mind to the men and women around him...

...Until someone ran right in front of him making him stop._ "__Anata wa doko ni demo samurai o okonatte inai. Naze son'nani nagaiai, jitaku kara_(Your not going anywhere Samurai. Why so long from home?)_?"_

A thin man said with light blue hair that looked filthy and unkempt, with little drops of blood in his bangs. He had large blue bloodshot eyes, and was wearing a dark blue coat going down to his knees, a scratched up metal headband, and a filthy pair black sandals. His toenails were unkempt with toe jam growing in all places and his hands were smeared with blood and mud. He had a dirty bandage around his neck coated with twigs and dirt.

Overall, this man was a slob.

The blue haired man pushed his hand in a stopping motion as he placed a gloved hand on John's armored chest trying to halt him but felt himself be pushed back a few paces. John looked down on the hand that pressed against his chest and said very lowly. "Don't touch me."

If there were many things John didn't approve of it was being touched by anyone he didn't want to. While being saved or rescued was one thing, big reprimanded by civilians was an absolute no go. He wouldn't allow that, or someone try to attempt to seize him up. He didn't care anymore since no one could understand him but he would let them know loud and clear that it was a very bad idea.

He needed answers but was left with thousands of more questions of what he had seen.

The man had a puzzled look not understanding what the green giant just said. The words sounded absolutely alien to him. _"Hanarete arui tari shite wa naranai ka, hoka ni wa shinu yo!(_Don't walk away, or else you'll die!_)" _John walked forward knocking the man off his feet into the mud, and continued to walk toward his designated location. He needed to find a database of some sorts and figure out information of this world, or better yet get off it entirely. John was so in tune that he didn't hear the sound of rapid wind cutting while also hearing someone yell _"Genjutsu: Misuto"._

That's when John noticed a sudden fog took form around him, and faces could be seen in the fog. Next, he could see demonic faces with pointed fangs and pointed ears appearing out of thin air. Turning everything Jon saw into the colors of hell. They began to grow quickly, forming more demonic visage that tried to look terrifying. John could see nothing but the faces and skulls grinning at him with their naked and bare pointy teeth.

In most cases, people or any other creature would have fled in terror, or tried to attack them to get the insensible fear off their minds and feel safe. John however, was impressed by the display, but at the same time he was not amused. While this was all happening all he could do was read his scanner and see nothing in front of him but only behind.

There was no damage coming to his body from the front but several of the men from earlier were closing in behind him, trying to lock him in. John reached for a grenade on his waist and plucked the ring emitting a **"CLING"**.

He waited a moment before surprising the people behind him by turning his back at the devilish formations without any fear or discomfort. He quickly equipped his magnum, took aim, and took three shots at the group who jumped back in shock. A few people were hit simultaneously while one man on the far left tossed another shuirken at John at a very fast rate.

John flew his left arm up and deflected the blade, making the man yell in shock. _"Inposshiburu! Korera wa, chakura ga narande ita! Karera wa kare no yoroi o kantsū shite iru hitsuyō ga_ arimasu!(Impossible! Those were lined with chakra! They should have penetrated his armor!)"

John cliped his magnum back on his thight before bringing out the battle rifle and opening fire at the attackers.

One man was unlucky and got hit on the side of his head making his head fly to the left while half of his brains splashed out like a smashed tomato. Another man met a similar fate and got hit in the shoulder, making him spin from the guns power and hit the ground in a muddy heap as he grunted loudly. The last man was hit in the dead center of his chest twice by the three round burst, making him fly back and hit the ground roughly.

There was yelling and screaming, before all the men sped out of there in speeds that made John lose their track of them almost instantly.

But no one could outrun his HUD scanner.

HUD: Right and Left

John looked toward his right and saw a man with a long thin sword rush at him. John fired at the man but he evaded the shot and too swing at John with accurate precision. John raised his battle rifle and blocked it with a 'clang' ringing through the misty valley. The man tried to throw a placed side kick Chief's side but felt his foot get caught in the armored mans grasp in a blur.

Chief then elbowed the man in the face, making the man's front skull cave inward. Making him resemble a pumpkin that was smashed. John's HUD detected someone behind him, and he threw a chop in a reverse action with his battle rifle behind.

The second man ducked under the swing and tried to plunge a knife in John's stomach. Sadly though the knife never made contact when Johns hand shot out like a snake and gripped it before tearing the knife from the man's hand. The attacker was forced to try and defend himself by holding his arms up in panic, but was knocked off his feet when John bashed his rifle, breaking both of his arms in half from the super powered strike. John felt the mans bones snap under his hit and saw the men begin to panic even more.

HUD: Behind

John retaliated by lightly shoving the man on the chest with a outstretched hand making him stumble back from the brutish strength before The master Chief took a lethal shot at his chest almost instantly.

The attacker felt his insides burn up as he fell backwards smacking the mud while gagging on blood pooling in his mouth and spilling from the sides. John then saw someone appear on his scanner from behind, he turned to see two identical people charging at him while walking on the water. They began performing rapid hand signs until he yelled. _"Suiton: Suidan no Jutsu!"_

A powerful large torrent of water that erupted from the man's mouth. Too much water infact as the gallons began to triple by the seconds. This action made John' eyes widen in shock.

He evaded the slithering snake of water by ducking underneath it, but it strangely came back around, causing him to fall back and begin to roll backwards. He attempted to stand up but felt a powerful force knock him out of the water, equivalent to an explosion. John flew through the like a rag doll but making sure to keep a vice grip on his battle rifle. He tried to maneuver himself in the air since everything was moving too fast and he began seeing the same two identical men infront of him.

However his scanner only picked up the live one on the left.

Taking this as a trick, John tried to position himself while in air to keep his memory based on when he would turn to the right direction to take the shot, but instead landed in the mud in a kneeling position, making him sink in. He quickly raised his battle rifle while firing at the left man standing, making him clutch his chest in agony.

The man's chest felt heavier, along with his legs, but he managed to utter. "_ Bakkuappu. ... Watashitachiha, TO - hitsuyō( Back up... We need to-Ugh)!" _He wheezed out before falling forward with his eyes slowly closing their color and his face muscles relaxing.

Surprisingly, the right identical man next to him faded away like he was never truthfully there.

The mud he stood on before didn't squish underneath nor did it appear to be rummaged inward by hie weight.

John jumped up roughly, ripping himself out of the mud when he felt something spin around his leg and tighten. He looked down to see a silver thread or possibly steel fibers that were tightly wrapped around his right thigh. He had seen this before, back in the house in fact.

He looked at the the string and let his eyes follow it to the end to see a man tugging on it roughly, but failing with his arms muscles looking about ready to burst. John looked at his scanner and saw this man wasn't really there again as if he had no life signature. John deduced he must have been some sort of animatronic life like robot or his scanner was malfunctioning. Which sounded highly unlikely.

John pointed the rifle at him but felt another tightening feeling wrap around his left arm above his elbow. He turned his head to see a wire, then another another wire that had wrapped around his wrist and yanked his arm forward.

Then on his right arm just below his shoulder.

Then his other leg around the knee.

Overall, there were 31 men and women in the area holding onto the steel fibers.

Looking at the burnt man in armor in bewilderment, and trying to keep him restrained with as much force as possible. The armored man looked wide awake, still standing upright above them and not the least tired as he shifted numerously in the mud he was sinking in. None of them knew what they had caught or who they caught.

It would be a surprise to the 2nd Mizukage, and hopefully some type of leverage to the war with making Ryo for prisoner ransoms.

There were several of the men and women covering the right and spreading out around the Master Chief with weapons drawn. Most of them came toward him and formed a massive circle around him trying to enclose him.

The Master Chief was surrounded.

That wouldn't stop him though, nothing would. John ignored the burning sensation in his elbows and swung both his arms together in a clapping motion, yanking all the men off their feet with relative ease, as if they were sacks of cotton balls.

He could easily bend steel with his bare hands let alone pull two middleweight men off the ground like they were Styrofoam, and that was outside his armor. John raised his gun and shot at a woman who still held on the wire, yanking on the portion that was wrapped his leg. When the round hit her she had turned into a puff of smoke, but what really caught John's attention is when the smoke cleared it revealed a log that splashed into the mud with a smoking bullet hole.

John was beginning to question this planets _physics._

_"Holograms?" _John thought as he seemed to try and understand how these people were able to appear and disappear off his scanner like nothing and, so skillfully. Hologograhy was a three dimensional representation of an image after being fully constructed in 2201. It was sometimes used in battle to fool enemies. This idea was scratched out though since the tech he had seen here personally, was not of this current century.

Perhaps the governments or higher paid cities had better resources then the lower districts. These people were smart enough to evade most of his attacks and pin him down. Not to mention trying to install psychological warfare with the fog and scary faces.

It was clever move, but not good enough to conquer him.

He located several signatures approaching from the west near the same home. John took a few more shots into the distance and caught two more men. The first one got struck in the head killing him instantly, and the other was hit dead in the stomach. Making him yell out and collapse in a heap from the sudden explosion of pain. John fired in almost every direction in the open area. Catching all of attackers off guard. Many of them began to run away and burst into smoke, he didn't know if that was a way to cover their tracks or

Loading a fresh magazine in the battle rifle he un-clipped another grenade from his waist and observed the distance between him and the group of men and women coming in towards him.

HUD: 54 YARDS

John would have to make this one count if he was going to get away. Before he could throw it however, he began to feel thousands of small taps on the back of his armor and the sounds of erratic clippings plucking him.

It at first didn't alert him as serious, so he initially paid no mind to it since it didn't faze him as he hurled the live grenade into the distance and turned to take another shot at a man who tried to sneak up on him. He also took notice the man was hurling small needles at him by spinning his thumb over his palm. It was pointless however, since all the needles would do was either bounce or bend off of him. He saw two more of the men explode into smoke on the right and hurled several of those odd diamond shaped blades at him, cutting through the air toward him at precise accuracy like an angry bee.

Throwing the grenade as it flew through the air, it landed near a pair of men who stared down at it strangely. It exploded after a few seconds in a fiery blaze of shrapnel and concussion, sending rocks flying in all directions.

John could hear cutting wind coming from behind. It grew louder and louder as he stood there. Waiting at the very last second, he expertly dived to the side making the knives flying at him hit him at full speed just barely fly over his head. A few that managed to knick him bounced off his armor's shields harmlessly.

When he rolled to the side again he looked down to see a note tied to knife from earlier in-between his feet. If memory served correct those notes with kanji on them exploded with a massive devastating effect. John didn't hesitate to move away as he jumped backwards hurriedly, and began running to the direction of his ship like a blur.

The paper bean to light on fire around the edges, and soon blew up behind him. Flames began to travel all around the area like an ever growing fire pit.

John continued to run at his full speed making the mud splash up. He was outnumbered and running low on ammo. The spartan saw he was being closed in from all sides of the territory and made a massive mistake of not coming fully prepared to a territory without enough prior knowledge.

He kept sprinting at his full speed which was around 50.44 miles per hour. As he kept moving he looked behind him to see 10 or so men following him over the mud, but failing to keep up. A few dispersed in blur and kept a large pace with him. He observed his HUD scanner but only saw 7 of those men were not really there.

John clipped his battle rifle back into his hands, and seeing that he was nearly out with only a one magazine left he had to make these shots count. He stopped running as he turned around and began firing at the live men behind, him as they were directly in the reticles sights.

One of the first attackers was hit directly in the head, and other ones were hit in several places ranging from neck, chests, stomachs, and a few heads...

All lethal.

John's gun dropped the now empty magazine before clipping it back on his back and replacing it with his magnum. He saw he was already 40 minutes away from his Pelican. If he kept running the way that he was before he could change that time to 10 minutes, but he had to lose his pursuers some how first.

HUD: Behind

"_Atakku!" _ Yelled a voice behing John making him curl his elbows.

Explosions of hell rang all around chief, nearly making him drop down and cover but managed to stay in the same place. On his HUD, many of his attackers disappeared from being caught in explosion while a new wave of signatures appeared. Confusion rose in John's mind.

It escalated so rapidly and so quickly it had caught him off guard and just for a second. Everything seemed so quiet minus the crackling of the flames. His armor was meant to pick up any traces of radioactive frequencies in case it ever happened.

Strangely though, nothing happened in that case. The bomb's that were crafted by these people must have been hand made, and didn't carry anything with deadly exposure. That must have been the solution.

Looking behind him he only saw more of the mysterious warriors approach him from the flames, not showing any burns. He became tense and was about to retaliate but saw they didn't pay much mind to him. They passed him and toward the few living attackers that had been following him. They gave him glances of curiosity. Briefly, but their main target were the ones behind.

He looked to see flames beginning to form near the brush of the forest and spread toward the trees. The flames engulfed the vegetation causing a massive cluster of smoke to fill the air above chief.

He saw more and more men and women get slaughtered in front of him by the odd shaped knives, swords, or bare hands. He watched as the flames cast different shapes and sizes. And for some odd reason he swore he saw a face in the flames that made him mentally cringe.

His began walking backwards slowly as the screams and yells began to die down and the fires continued to grow, causing the glow to become brighter by the second. John turned and slowly began making his way toward the ship and back to the current state of mind. He was continuing to question what this 'pillar of prophecy' crap was and what anything had to do with him. In the last 10 minutes he had seen people define the impossible, but leave him dazed and confused.

Thinking back to everything that occured, John could've let the Didact kill him. But he couldn't, he could have sacrificed himself to save Cortana, but she wouldn't. He wanted to finish what the UNSC conscripted him to serve, but it would never finish. He wanted to bury his pain in any way shape possible. He would never admit he never had a problem... Simply because he was told to never let any emotion take over. It would not only look good to the higher ups, but it would get in the way of his military career.

He would never admit he missed Cortana because if he did not know how to say it. He truly didn't know what it was to have someone so close to you for so long... Only to be taken from you. But in retrospect, John had many friends in the UNSC during his training. Sam was one of his best. The day he died John was devastated but used his sacrifice in the hope of winning the war. Several more allies were lost and John felt more and more alone.

After so many demises... John felt alone to the point that it made him feel empty

He looked in the direction the ship was in... And took off in a full sprint.

[2 days later]

Throughout the Elemental nations, that unforgettable day would be known as, _"Day of the _Orenjiaido akuma_" _Due to a devastating hit to Kiri's shinobi forces in the war and hundreds loss of human life within a day. Reports stated of a seven-foot tall green man with a single orange eye who brought only bad luck to kiri. But good luck to Suna in the Second world war...

[ 5 days later/ Aboard the UNSC Infinity/ GYM ]

Sighing in contempt, John was currently bare of his armor and in the Infinities large gym as pushed for 349 reps that day. The cold metal of the equipment's weights nearly touched his heavily ripped chest before being raised a few feet into the air by a pair of muscular lean arms. John let his arms bend down and continuing the same process again. The regular routine would go on for a few hours due to his stamina, and his muscle growth. He lifted the massive dumbar over his scarred pale chest as sweat dripped down.

The weight was close to 1500 pounds, and still felt like a good enough work out, even though it was in the early stages of feeling a bit light to his arms. His grunts were growing more softly as he pushed himself harder and harder, really wanting to feel the burn increase.

He was only wearing a pair of black track pants that were hugging his legs and showing the state of thick muscle they were in. The pants weren't that very long, and cut off right above his ankles since these weren't designed for his stature. Laundry was not an issue though on the infinity, but doing it required a bit of creativity.

The gym was a very plain color of white with pure white floors and orange walls with hundreds of exercising equipment. There were a few pictures on the walls lining across, or several unimportant propaganda posters with the UNSC symbol. Most of the equipment were treadmills that hugged the walls and were all folded back since John only needed one since on the Infinity there were 13 gyms, but one living occupant.

Some large dribbles of sweat rolled down from his head and dropped softly to the ground. Causing Johns sensitive ears to twitch. Everything around him was out of place to him. Like he had something to do, but it required waiting in order to achieve it. He was exhausted from not nearly getting enough sleep for the past few days due to nightmarish episodes that caused him minor night terrors.

Most of them involving the same undefined images over and over again. While it wasn't scary it was shocking while confusing in a way. He would see a man, or what seemed like a man standing on a pile of rocks with some weird flat sword. It looked like a large fan. His hair was long and was rather spiked backwards, or it was the long hairstyle. He couldn't define the details on him but it seemed he wore armor as well.

Then the image of a very large pair of large angry red eyes, with the weirdest things on them. Then the dream would end with the man muttering something silently, and a giant mouth filled with razor teeth would devour both of them. He couldn't make out the character or details and would not forget it. Usually, you would forget about 90% of the dream after half an hour... But in John's augmented mind...

He. would. remember. every. single. _detail to the core._

He remembered the smell that coursed through his nostrils... Of burning rotting corpses then turned to dust...

He remembered the sound. The very deep wailing of the composer when it would activate its cataclysmic ray...

He would remember odd words being said to him over and over again. After a week he said ..._"__Anata wa hashira... Mushiro dasutodearu koto ni haji ikenai_._" _After the first night he desperately tried to figure out what that was he wrote it down. Mentally remembering the words clearly. After waking up out of a restless night he would write down what they meant, and after translating them in a book. He was left with more questions when he discovered what the message said.

"You don't live up to being a pillar... Rather dust."

He was becoming aggravated from the state of the Infinity was inm and more tired of not having any missions. All he could do was wait for a search party in these times of crisis. But after the past few hours he had used a search database in file history in the Infinities archives, from the recorded sentences he obtained weeks before and read that they were speaking Japanese. He had no formal teaching in other language other than his was given English.

But other than that he had no idea had to properly speak Japanese. He searched the database for any matched images on the marking from the headbands he saw, and found nothing. He searched geographic images he took before entering the ship to see if he could find any matches. He was met with the same answer. No match.

This made John growl at the memory when he was confronted with the bright bold letters over and over and over again saying-

**NO MATCH**

**NO MATCH**

**NO MATCH**

**NO MATCH**

**NO MATCH**

**NO MATCH**

**NO MATCH**

**NO MATCH**

John's pace of lifting had become faster, and before he knew it, he had completed 20 reps in less than a few minutes. He soon rested the weight down after the 400th lift on the charging pad, and wiped a glob of sweat of his pale forehead on the floor as he stood up fully, letting the gyms cold air blow onto his shiny skin.

He was standing fully at 6"10' without his armor and had the whitest skin that would have been chalk white. Everywhere on the skin that was revealed were small scars. Large ones around his lower waist from needlers, a few small ones on the left side of his chest from nearly getting pierced by a zealot elite on Reach after it snuck up on him. A few stood up in place on his stomach from previous bullet wounds, and the very large ones on his arms from the augmentation process. Those were the most painful.

His blue tired eyes blinked a few times as he rubbed his face and sat down for a moment. He crossed his large forearms and looked at his scars. The two scars on his top arm stood out as the went down toward the back of his hands, while a few spread across diagonally on his wrist and two on each under forearm. There was also the few in John's fingers which all went downward.

Whenever he would see the scars of the augmentation procedure on his forearms, his wrists and fingers would a serious phantom pain just by looking at them.

He coughed when his eyes scanned over the gyms equipment again to clear his vision from the sweat forming. Standing up, he went over to a medium sized computer in the corner of the room and reached for a gray folded towel inside a woven basket. John wiped it over his temples before wrapping it around his neck and sitting down on the bolted in chair.

He had thought of thousands of ways to get in contact with the UNSC, but all were cut short when John found out the communication tower had been destroyed. It was located on the underside of the Infinity, and was now under water. Both of them.

He had tried to formulate another strategy, using the ships technology to create a new relay, but it resulted in failure, due to him not having an excessive knowledge with engineering. While he was no egghead like Dr. Glassman, John's IQ was more than enough form him to get a High school diploma and a few degree;s in a plethora of fields. Dr. Glassman was not on the Infinity when it had been composed, but John knew he would probably never meet him or be seen in this lifetime. One thought though crossed John's mind.

Leaving the planet.

While the Infinity had enough food, water, and a generator that could last for years, it was irrelevant to stay on an absolutely unknown planet with no data in the thousands of records John had searched through. He had to find a way off this planet for good.

He had to.

HE NEEDED TO.

For his long due service to Humanity.

For his strong-willed duty to protect and serve earth for as long as he lived and breathed.

And most of all... F_or Cortana..._

* * *

**Revised: 7-23-15**

**TO BE CONTINUED...**

**AUTHORS NOTE: ****Thanks for reading!**

**-Shipwreck5897**


	4. The everchanging fate

**DISCLAIMER/ I don't own Halo or Naruto**

* * *

"_Dare to reach out your hand into the darkness to pull another hand into the light."_

_\- Norman B. Rice_

* * *

Chapter 4: The ever changing fate...

* * *

[Land of fire/ Konohagakure no sato]

Deep within a heavily populated village, sat a middle aged man in a rather large office behind a desk smoking a pipe. He was beginning to show signs of old age due to the small wrinkles on his face, but was still in his prime. He was wearing white robes, with a similar hat with a red front and a kanji on the front that read "Third."

He had spent his entire life and devotion for the hidden leaf village, and its people. This man is Hiruzen Sarutobi... Third fire shadow of the hidden leaf village and current Hokage. His power was so legendary, he is hailed as "The God of Shinobi" and had yet lost the title to anyone. His title of Hokage had been bestowed upon him at the very end of the first shinobi war many years before when he was only a teen with his squadron.

He vowed to protect the leaf village under his teachers dying wishes...

His own teachers consisted of Hashirama Senju, and Tobirama Senju. The first and second Hokage of the Hidden leaf in order, throughout his childhood and the end of the first shinobi world war.

Hashirama had perished during the early stages of the first Shinobi war, and Tobirama followed at the very end of it. It had been a depressing time, but Sarutobi pulled through like he promised to everyone.

Danzo Shimura, one of Sarutobi's closest friends was enraged (but not showing it) at not being placed as head of the village. While this was an understandable statement their friendship had begun to dwindle in the years... Creating a barrier between the Hokage and the head of the civilian council. Danzo is a respected member of the council, along as a powerful shinobi as well.

Today in Konoha, the second shinobi war was at its stirring point. Sunagakure had suppressed the series of attacks at Taki and was beginning to fall back, Kumo was aiming toward the Land of fire which was resulting in several konoha forces to defend the perimeter in the dense forests, and Kiri was having to pull itself out of Suna's grasp after it latest but mysterious loss weeks before.

The economy was at a rushing high due to weapon manufactures needing an assortment of weapons for the thousands of the Shinobi and kunoichi, but the human devastation was leaving a mark on Konoha... In the last few weeks over 11,131 shinobi had been slaughtered across the border and the number continued to rise... There had been over 723 missing shinobi who had never returned to their squadrons after failing to meet up with them on several occasions. It was either they had been captured by enemy lines, or had become deserters. But the details were never clear on deserters... They were met automatically branded missing-nin in that case if it were to happen.

While Sarutobi gave a tired sigh as he signed the 12 hundredth form today, and looked at the end of the desk to see another 20 pages needed reading through, he simply grumbled. All he had read about for the last few days was pieces of odd shaped metal appearing around he elemental nations, and continuing to appear around the shores or flowing down the river that connected to the ocean.

It began with a few, than a stack, next to a cabinet full of complaints. Sometimes he wondered how Tobirama-Sensei didn't lose his mind or patience under the constant amounts of paperwork. There was enough paper for an entire forest in here for crying out loud! The reading, the approvals, the presentation to the council, the presentation to the Fire Daimyo and the waiting period which consisted of 3 to 4 weeks to sign ANOTHER approval paper was very stressful.

Hiruzen was a very patient man... But when the papers piled up to rival the sky his wrinkles only deepened.

He however knew the importance of these papers was everything to the village. No matter how ridiculous these requests were. It was his job to maintain Konoha's welfare no matter what the cost was. It was his job to maintain the war over the horizon, and his job to keep Konoha from falling to Ame-

*KNOCK*

*KNOCK*

Came from the sound of the front office door.

"Enter." Hiruzen ordered as the front door to his office opened, revealing a silvered haired man behind a white styled wolf mask. His current attire consisted of a Konoha shinobi uniform that ranged from a Jounin flak jacket, a pair of leather gloves, a single white bandage wrapped around his left arm, black sandals, a red swirl on his left arm and an odd looking sach on his shoulder with red triangles at the bottom with the same red swirl on it. He didn't make a move other than bowing while displaying full respect to Hiruzen. "Hokage-sama." He acknowledged.

"What news do you bring wolf?" Hiruzen asked, knowing this could be another field report of a loss of life. He had signed over 700 in the last couple of weeks as they piled up on his desk. They were never easy to sign, but for the village you serve for, sacrifices had to be made to off the village for the greater good.

But that was job of being a Hokage.

"We've received news from Orochimaru-sama's unit that it had just entered the border of Kumogakure less than 2 hours ago." Wolf answered.

"Is that all wolf?" Sarutobi pressed for more information.

"None Hokage-Sama." Wolf replied while standing straighter. The tension in the room was calm. The sound of the wind through the window was soothing across the room.

"Wolf... I must speak with you for a moment." Sarutobi hesitated as his eyes scanned over the documents on the wooden desk.

"Hokage-Sama?" wolf questioned.

"Its alright to speak freely wolf, I need you to drop you base of cover for the moment." Sarutobi asserted as he pushed the document to the side that had been bothering him all day and rested his arms in a folding position. Wolf nodded as he slipped off his ANBU mask and sat it on the desk.

The face revealed a young man with a few stress lines across his face, but he had healthy skin. This man is known as Konoha's heroic white fang, but his given name was Sakumo Hatake. He was a respected ANBU member but recently was about to take part in the Jounin exams.

"Yes?" Sakumo asked with moderate concern stressing his voice.

"Do you have any news from Orochimaru?" Sarutobi questioned again.

"Yes.. I just-

"No... Not the status of the mission, how _his _squadron is."

Sakumo knew who he was speaking of in particular. While the subordinates were fresh out of the Ninja academy, one particular subordinate had leveled through the most of all.

Yet he acted immature and was a knucklehead most of the time living in his family's name.

He was one of two Senju bloodlines left along with his sister, making him a rare and important shinobi. His name was Nawaki Senju. His birthday was less than 12 hours ago his sister, Tsunade Senju, was a nervous wreck because of it. It was his first real B rank mission that took place outside the village, his team consisted of the top of his class and Orochimaru as his teacher.

While Sarutobi was certain that Nawaki wouldn't be harmed under his star pupil but he couldn't be 100% certain at the same time.. While Tsunade had faith in Orochimaru, she still loved her brother dearly and had hopes he would be alright.

Speaking of nervousness, that was what Sarutobi had been feeling within the Land of Cloud.

While there populace wasn't as powerful as their own, their military strength was nearly in par with their's. Making Konoha on a leg here against Suna, who was considered the weakest, Taki who was considered full of military surprises, Kumo who was strongest, and Kiri was was the most pained to fight.

But then there was Amegakure.

They were a serious problem from the very beginning.

"No news other than that." Sakumo sadly replied having the same feeling for the village.

"Oh," Sarutobi said as he switched his gaze to the drawer below him, opened it, and pulled out a white paper bag. He opened it slowly letting the paper crinkle and some tobacco to put in his pipe. "Then I know what to say to Tsunade." Sarutobi mentioned the 16 year old Senju heiress with a sigh. After her parents death, her little brother was all she had left.

"I'm sure they'll be fine. Have faith in them." Sakumo reminded to the Hokage.

"I have complete faith in them knowing Orochimaru has them under his wing." Sarutobi stated. Orochimaru was his favorite student. While Tsunade was a specialist in medical skills she lacked proper genjutsu training. Then there was Jiraiya, while he was becoming a bit of a skilled shinobi, he lacked proper maturity. Orochimaru was a pure genius in all of the shinobi arts, in every way shape and form. He's patient, calculative, and creative at the same time. Everything Sarutobi had taught him, Orochimaru soaked it all in like a sponge.

It was scary in fact.

"Then you have nothing to worry about Hokage-sama." Sakumo replied kindly before grabbing his mask that was on the desk.

"I'm not worried Sakumo, just anxious." Sarutobi repelled.

"Of course." Sakumo said with a frown.

"I know in the life of being a killer there's the chance you will die, every second of ever day. I learned that when I was young and so did you." Sarutobi said rather loudly, attempting to get hie blood running.

"I understand Hokage-sama..."

"And more importantly wolf, I know very well I have to make decisions of the village for it depends on everything that it keeps its citizens safe." Sarutobi said as he rubbed his temples.

He was getting old. It was the job that was never getting old though.

"Why now though? In this time of need why now?"

"We've been at constant engages with other nations now for over two years." Sarutobi replied sternly. It had been over two years since Tsunade and Nawaki's parents had been killed. They were caught in the middle of the night by an assassin from the land of stone, or Iwagakure who snuck in on a mission. The mysterious man had entered the bedroom from the window and killed them both as they slept. He slashed both of their throats, and lit the room on fire to cover his tracks from Konoha. The assassin had gotten away after he completed his mission by trying to disappear into the dense forest that night.

Until he was confronted by an enraged Tsunade who had heard everything and smelled the smoke. She was so furious that she had leveled an entire mountain... and bashed the man's head in at the same time after almost 2 grueling hours of grueling fighting.

It was her first kill... But it wouldn't be her last. Tsunade who was only fourteen was mentally broken from it, and her brother who was only 10 at the time suffered a series of depression of it. After reports of his death went about, it turned out the man was actually a close relative to the Tsuchikage's personal adviser. This gave them leverage to try and start a war and they got one.

Tsunade and Nawaki's parents were head of one of the most renowned clans in Konoha, and killing them was like killing the Hokage himself. Their relatives were Senju's, one of the main reasons for all of the villages being unified in the first place, and the clans forming in several of the villages. Soon after Konoha began launching surprise attacks to Iwa, Iwa's treaty involved other villages to back them up, but soon they begun making deals with Konoha, and they would stab them in the back later.

It went like that for months... And they continued to turn on each other like rabid dogs, fighting and clutching for the last precious piece of meat.

That summed up the beginning of Second Shinobi World war.

"Is there anything else I should be doing?" Sakumo questioned the aging kage who closed his eyes and sighed. "No... In fact you can take the rest of the day off. My treat." Hiruzen said as he took a puff of smoke. Sakumo looked quizzically at him at the offer. The were currently in one of the bloodiest wars they had seen in years and he was just offered the day off for reporting a single message... Maybe the day was coming onto Sarutobi quicker than he knew. While he was a stern and serious leader of the village, he never really did get a single day off himself, let alone give any. It was one of those rare moments when you question whether or not they were the real person.

And in this life, you had to be careful who you trusted.

"Thank you for that, I was actually needing to return home to my wife. She's do any day now." Sakumo said with a side smile. If there was one thing he truly loved more than the village, it was his wife. He knew that was taboo since you were periodically told to make compromises for the villages well being, but he couldn't truly.

Sarutobi only nodded before saying. "Carry back to your day wolf... And Congratulations." Sakumo quickly replied. "Yes Hokage-sama." Before walking to the door and leaving to his home...

Sarutobi rubbed his temples as he looked outside to see a flock of birds flying off over the lush tree's. He then stood up before looking down at Konoha and seeing the citizens carry on with their daily lives, buying, selling, tellers, buyers, tailors, weapon sellers, and teachings at the academy. He could hear the thousands of citizens speaking outside as it carried throughout his office as he closed his window.

Fainting pure silence. He went back to his desk before looking over at the report forms from the office and mail room. He read and read and read each and every sentence and they all ranged around the war. It was becoming a colossal hassle to remain vigilant in the times such as these, but the shinobi were the villagers protectors, they were Konoha's beacon of hope and resilience. They proved to have the one true thing that would always prevail in anything, anyway shape or form... That would light through all of the deadness in the world and battlefield.

**The will of fire.**

It burned bright in some, but brightest in most of the Shinobi within the land of fire.

Sarutobi chuckled at the memory of his teacher. Tobirama was a stoic man who would never let the enemy get into his mental state.

His one true philosophy was "_MIND-TECHNIQUE-BODY... If you can't control one... you can not control the other." _

It was harsh but that was the overall estimation of being a killer for a villages safety. Tobirama was never someone to put down, but simply put you down for good. He never shuddered or challenged anyone through the attempts of selflessness, and was probably the most powerful water user in the land of fire. He was exactly like his element. Never letting anything stop him, he would simply faze around it no matter what. He was a true Shinobi in Sarutobi's eyes for his sacrifice at the end of the first war.

Sarutobi wish there was someone who shared the same ideologies as his teacher. It would bring a better attitude among the villages Shinobi and possibly bring this war to a closing.

But it wasn't like someone was going to drop from the sky.

Other than metal of course. Speaking of which, Sarutobi had to read that report of some reported _"Orange eyed Monster" _in Kirigakure.

XXXXXXX

John sneezed as he stepped off of the amour placement machine as it tightened all of the bolts into place holding the armor tightly around his frame. He had the most uncontrollable urge to wipe his nose from another oncoming sneeze.

He perceived the emptiness of the Infinity and could feel the cold air despite the armor touching his skin, as if the former occupants of the ship still lingered within the room. He never took notice to anything like this before but recently after doing absolutely nothing other than train, eat, sleep, and plan for counter measure, he really has been thinking. Overthinking about the negative possibilities.

He walked over to the gate and stepped over it, and then began walking down the near endless corridor. He picked up the pace a little and saw the massive opening at the very end leading to the bridge.

In the past few hours John had collected scrap pieces of alloy to compose a bridge from the back portion of the Infinity to the front. The stress of having to make jumps across constantly was beginning to put a toll on John's patience, but he fixed the problem. For the last few days he had tried to learn a few phrases in Japanese so he could at least communicate with anyone on this planet in case the UNSC were unable to be in contact yet. John would not truly believe the UNSC was overrun but the idea was beginning to make sense now. The times he would get sleep he had very dark thoughts of what was happening now that he was gone.

He wouldn't classify himself M.I.A. He was simply taking a while longer to make a reappearance into action , but he had to become locked and ready when refacing the Didact again.

He would have to no matter what. The Infinity would have to be lifted from the salty waters and be conducted to emergency repairs as soon as possible. If he could somehow bring it back to where it was originally constricted.

ut first things first the information would have to be said delivered to the office of naval intelligence within the next few hours... Manually. John would have to search beyond the galaxy... Since communication in the Infinity or anywhere else wasn't responding, he could only assume the worst... But if that happened... If the Didact had truly won... truly beaten chief and composed the galaxy to nothingness...

Then chief would beat him with the last alternative. Since Blades, guns, and explosives didn't do any type of damage to the Didact, and physical contact was out of the question since he was much stronger than chief, then there was only one thing that had one chance. It was something John had thought, but threw the idea out thinking it was absolutely insane, but what choice did he have now? He would resort to use the Halo rings as seen as he git a hold of the activation index key, he would fire it. If that didn't kill Didact then nothing would. If all else failed, John wouldn't quit until every last molecule within him was vaporized.

But he wouldn't forget of Del Rio, he would not forget him of his treachery.

He was the man responsible.

While the Didact was the one who did everything, Rio was the cause of it all. What had John done to deserve such a fate? All he wanted to do was stop the Didact, who proved to be an armed and dangerous being who would not go down easily under marines alone.

Del Rio wanted to play the 'know at all captain' card, and be the one who made his decision final, and not respond okay when the higher ups got mad him. Del Rio was an arroogant fool who believed in only himself, and because of his treachery to humanity, everything was lost because of him.

John would make sure that Del Rio would pay for his crimes.

Call it whatever you want, revenge for his race, or vengeance to Cortana.

The simple devotion to aster Chief's life now was not only make the Didact suffer in the most unimaginable way possibly for eternity, but to make Del Rio pay for his crimes severely. Even though he outranked him, was the United nations space commands senator, and had control of several smaller fleets, John would find a way to bring him down once and for all.

Not because he only had to for his crimes against humanity, but because John wanted that to happen to him.

Today, John had a major recall of all the vehicles stationed on the INFINITY to make sure they were fully operational in the plan for counter attack against the Didact. There were 1,064 M12 force application vehicles, 14 D79H-TC Pelicans, 6,078 M808B main battle tanks, 122,343 M274 Ultra-light All-Terrain vehicles, 32 M510 Siegework/Ultra-Heavy Mobile Anti-warcraft weapons Platforms, 3,078 HRUNTING/YGGDRASIL Mark IX armor defense systems, 3,232 F-41 Exoatmospheric Multirole Strike fighters, and finally 10 Strident class frigates. However, due to the crash an assortment of all of the fighters had sustained some portions of damages to the wings, and some sustained heavy internal damages.

One of the frigates was flyable, but due to the major section of the unloading bay being submerged in hundreds of feet in sea water, nothing was leaving from that part of the station anytime soon until John patched the breach and emptied the water.

He would also have to make note of the odd occurrences that happened days before in the battle he fought against his attackers. They didn't prime any explosives he had never seen before. He didn't see a single shell casing or gun present during the skirmish, and couldn't identify the cities government affiliation. He saw men and women perform such deadly "illusions and or powers. Or maybe they were some type of unspecified mutant powers, but there were many things unexplained from that day. John had taken mental notes and searched for anything that could help him understand this planet better.

He imputed the images he saw from his helmets camera in, and got zero results. He searched for anything related to what they said or this word "JUTSU" they kept shouting about as they attacked him and left him nearly defenseless. He was lucky all they used were water and simple fire. If they were capable of using those two, who knew what else they could do.

In all of his military career and assaults on enemy lines ranging from extraterrestrial armies, a parasite with thousands upon thousands of minds linked together, and godlike beings with no pity for humans except themselves.

John-117, the hardened veteran who though he had seen it all, but was without a doubt at a loss for words

He was interested when he found thousands of excessive information from that search. Apparently the word, "JUTSU", was a type of mystical arts for the warriors once known as the Shinobi or "NINJA". At first John thought this was a hoax, since it wasn't possible for people to be able to do such things involving magic. It was only after reading information that it only got harder to take in and understand. It was also related to a mystical life force known as Chakra.

Chakra was said that it inhabits all beings cells individually, signifying their life and mind, and those who were able to mold their chakra were able to unleash a mystic art known as Ninjutsu.

Ninjutsu ranged from walking on water, hard surfaces such as ceilings, exhaling fire, and casting illusions known as genjutsu. Nothing was mentioned though of the use of hand seals. There was so much more to read about on these topics... But John thought this information was irrelevant to his cause and had enough..

But it didn't leave his mind though...

John made his way over the bridge he had constructed from pieces of spare alloy in the water and molded them together by using a high powered blow torch. The bridge was 125 meters long with equaled to 410 feet, and had a width of 13 meters. It was 90 inches thick and provided much more support for heavier things for the time being. It wasn't the best bridge but it would do for the moment. It had taken John a good 43 hours to build it and a trying to keep it standing.

As he walked across the sturdy bridge, he heard another crash of the ocean's waves rock against the war vessel far down below. Since he was practically in the middle of the choppy ocean the oceans current was at it's strongest, and would constantly beat against it's steel alloy hull. Not enough to cause damage but it would create a tremendous amount of noise that benefited to John not getting enough sleep.

When John would walk outside the deck at night and wait for a transmission, he would see many boat's among the horizon. Some big or small traveling on the water through the fog, but for some reason they would always steer clear of the Infinity. This was good to him though and wouldn't draw attention to him.

He was not used to being near the ocean for some odd cause, it gave him a bit of nostalgia from his childhood which consisted of him spending his afternoons laying on the beaches on his home world Eridanus II. When he was a kid he would often bury his legs up to his knees in the warm sand and feel the small particles between his fingers. He would always look down past the ocean and see the industrial district moving those massive pods with the cranes as the sun was setting showing only their outline in the distance.

Then when it was time for dinner, his mother would call him from across the beach as the tide crashed against the surf. His mothers radiant smile, her sweet sincere voice, and the feeling of her arms wrapping around him when he ran to her...

John blinked a few times, trying to jog his memory back into place as he walked down the quiet halls to the launching bay... Forgetting of his dead past and remembering his current mission.

XXXXXXX

John strapped himself tightly in the D77-TC Pelican and was ready to venture out into space. He wasn't in the mood to take any time for launch sequences and needed to get off the planet as fast as he could. The Didact had begun composing New Phoenix after being awoken after just a few hours, and it had taken John around 5 days to sum up that this planet wasn't going to help with information. This planet was unregistered in the Unified Earth Government. It was hopeless if he could turn it into a base and bring forces down to fight against him. Now was probably the best time to leave.

John also needed to locate engineers to repair the Infinity internally since it was its last hope and defense against the Prometheans. From looking through documentations of the Infinities construction, it was built in the Oort Cloud system. One of the main reasons for the long wait was to try and fix communications to the Infinity and then after that, it was waiting for a signal of some sorts. Anything that would help or show that the military was still active or the reformed Covenant was taking action against STORM.

John was skeptical of taking a Pelican into deep space exploration, but other than this his options were down to nothing. While the massive frigates were moderately undamaged, they wouldn't be taking off until a new launching pad was repaired for it to raise them, or there wasn't a massive hole letting saltwater in and flooding it.

John prepped the engines as he flipped the switches on the left hand side, and awaited the force field to open up at the end. The engines turned on and the blue force field disappeared after a few seconds, and signaling John it was time to take off. John wanted to keep the power off and on standby due to the fact the Infinity had an emergency generator that was running. It could run as long as it was getting sunlight radiated on it but after the salt water damage in the engine room it was down to a few years. He would have to work with what he had and not be hasty with his decisions. Billions of lives were on the line.

Nothing John hadn't been through before except for this time.

He didn't know whether O.N.I was still active or not from the 5 day onslaught that he had been absent for. He wasn't certain that O.N.I was even in control at this point.

Guess this was one way to find out for sure.

With the accelerator pressed down at full force, the Pelican's wing engines activated, causing it to lift up off the floor and speed through the entrance towards the outside air for the first time in over a week. John pulled the throttle back, causing to the pelican to rise up with it's nose pointed to the sky. John looked on the scanner seeing nothing besides the empty ocean.

The ocean was so far below now as he kept ascending, he suddenly made a few degrees right turn. While the Pelican turned, he observed the Infinity. More importantly, the the moderate repairs he had made to it. They weren't the greatest but it was a good start. What needed to be done now was repair the few holes in the hull, empty out the sea water, clean and repair the rear engines, reboot all the systems, and many more things that he couldn't list out.

The Pelican rose higher until it began to enter the first part of the lower atmosphere.

John looked over the side and saw the Infinity become smaller and smaller until all he could see was dark speck in the middle of pure blue with land in the great distance. When he looked further into the distance all he could make out was a massive gray and dark cloud covering the continent.

Something though registered in John's mind from the previous five days. Looking to the side of the control pad, the Pelican's air synchronizer began to scan the air quality outside. This would give John the explanation to what gave the outside world it's vivid color. Pressing a single small button it began to activate the small vacuum on the outside engine. Once the vacuum began it entered a small vial next to John. He waited for the results of the contents in the air while still traveling faster into the sky. He wasn't worried if there were any hazardous chemicals in the air since he knew there wasn't'. It wasn't lethal since he had been breathing it for nearly a week. If there was something detrimental to his health it would have happened by now.

After a few seconds, the results came onto the screen in green lettering. John looked closer to the wording and and read. _"Normal Air quality containing no substitutions." _This notion left John wondering. He wanted to know if there was something causing these strange colors, but to his shock there wasn't anything. In fact the air was pure. Too pure. Like it hadn't been exposed to pollution or exhaust from factories.

John continued to press further into the atmosphere as the sky became darker and darker with each couple hundred feet per second. He maintained the

And just like that, he was off the planet.

XXXXXXX

Like always the vast vagueness of space always gave John a feeling home. Everything was exactly the way he had pictured it. Utter blackness with the odd colors of galaxies beyond the glowing stars that littered everything around him for light years ahead. He could see the moon that was probably miles away from him, but that wasn't his current though on it. His though was that the moon was strangely bigger than he remembered... Almost _tripled _in fact.

Space to him was peacefeul. He had spent the majority of his life traveling from planet to planet training, fighting, and surviving while being transported. He had never truly observed space during anytime but now his eyes were scoping anywhere for a visual of life.

Anything. Signs of a rouge vessel or a single satellite station containing marines, scientists, Spartans, or anyone who know of the status of Earth. If they were part of the trade federation then they could pinpoint him directly to Earth or even Requiem. John looked on the outside wings through the window and nearly forgot to activate the Anti-freeze. Anti-freeze was distributed to the engines since the atmospheres temperature could drop below zero. If it wasn't added then the engines motors and gear would solidify and cause him to crash. After doing that he then pressed the active distress beacon. The distress beacon was at the bottom base of the Pelican's hull and it could reach miles beyond imagination.

He was around a few miles out of the planets reach and nearly away from it for good. John located the "AUTO PILOT" by searching for the left three blue knobs that would keep it at a constant pace and swerve around any unwanted asteroids or space debris. He activated auto pilot and pressed the instant messaging beacon. He sounded the microphone and awaited the red blinking button to activate a connection and send a voice message

**UNABLE TO ESTABLISH CONNECTION **

John was becoming uneasy at the moment. The connection to probably one the most simplest receivers wasn't responding. John's hand clicked the button again and was met with the same description on the lower blue screen written in white letters. He activated the hover boosters and stilled the Pelican's base for a moment. Aleting his attention, John tried to reboot the system and see if he could possibly gain a simple connection.

He waited.

**UNABLE TO REBOOT CONNECTION WITH SELECTED FREQUENCY. PLEASE CONSULT RELAY ENGINEER**

John could only assume the worst at this point. If a decent connection was out of the question then he had to assume the Navy along with the military had suffered a massive besiege from the Promethean's and the Didact. The only logical plan John could think of now was his mission from the very beginning. Returning to Earth. It seemed to be the most reasonable and the only possible thing he could do now. That's were ONI was and were the most of it's government was located. He thought of returning to Earth if the coordinates were correct and if he had enough fuel to locate any type fueling station within the systems map. If he could do that then he could very well pilot straight to earth.

Speaking of which, he only had enough fuel for about halfway the trip. John activated the mini-hologram map on the center right side of the Pelican's dashboard for Earths coordinates. After pressing "ACTIVATE", the map turned on for a few seconds before reading 'LOADING'...

...

...

...

...

...

...

**UNKNOWN GALAXY AND UNABLE TO ESTABLISH ****FREQUENCY**

**ERROR**

** ERROR**

**ERROR  
**

**ERROR**

**ERROR**

John growled angrily before switching the map off roughly. Quickly activating the boosters the jets roared pushing it slightly forward through the empty vacuum of space. John directed the Pelican over the planet and pointed it further into the distance. He began speeding forward as far away from the planet. He was set to finding AND locating earth one way or another.

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

But for some reason he felt so tired.

Like the energy had literally been drained out of him.

John groaned for a moment before nearly falling forward but keeping himself up vision was becoming hazy and his eyelids were becoming heavier than he could imagine. To his will, he tried to bite his lip to try to keep himself awake getting a bit of blood to leak down his chin inside the helmet.

But the extreme case of fatigues was becoming too much for him to handle himself... He continued to try and fly forward and past the planets gravitational pull so if he did pass out he wouldn't be stranded. Further and further, his vision became worse. His arms began to gain an unimaginable weight from the stress and all he could do was moan as his world turned black.

John finally slumped forward. Hitting the front of his helmet on massive keyboard roughly, before passing out in a deep sleep.

And the Pelican shut off mysteriously. Before it began descending back to the planet he was trying so desperately to escape from. It entered the atmosphere and continued to fall, gaining a sudden speed within seconds.

XXXXXXX

The same feeling from everything before this took over John's frame as he felt the tightened grasp hold every being of him. All he could hear was a loud ringing and taste blood in his mouth. When he opened his eyes he saw that the area was the same as before tried to look around but this time he could move his head. The groundless area was pure white void with different glows in the distance. He looked down and saw his arms and legs that were stiff as a board and saw that he was standing on nothing. He tried to release himself from the invisible bindings, but felt nothing move besides the muscles in his neck.

He held the same combination feelings of fatigues and being weightless.

The area had the look of glowing lines in the distance running in a downward direction and counting until it disappeared in a silvery mist below.

He continued to struggle against the phantom chains that held him in place. Attempting to heave his arms apart of to pry his back forward all proved useless until he stopped to take account of what was holding him in place. He looked down to see nothing even holding him. Ignoring the obvious invisible force. Then he tried again. And again. And again. And again. Until he began looking around and trying to listen for anything distinctive.

He looked at his HUD to try and see where he was in or when he was. He also kept an eye out if there were any floating eyeballs this time. The location was unknown, terrain was unknown, elevation was unknown, the air quality was even unknown.

The armored soldier then tried to shift at least one of his fingers upward to see if he could at least try to press the gravitational stabilizers on his armor. If he wasn't anywhere with surface then maybe he could be in an area with zero gravity. With all his might, John tried to force his forearm to bend a few centimeters to tap the button under his wrist. He gritted his teeth and a low growl escaped his lips as he inched closer and closer, all from just barely moving.

"**It's not going to work you know." **A calm voice said suddenly said behind John. He eased his actions as he slowly turned his head and was met with a man. This man looked abnormal though to say in the least. He was met with the sight of a middle age man with pale skin that could match his own, around his mid 40's, very lean build, long pure white hair with a few strands holding beads, but what really stood out about the main were two things. His eyes held no iris, giving him the term naked eyes a whole new meaning and an appearance of an alien like being, Next was the only feature that drove John to wonder who in the hell he was speaking to. On the man's head were two identical horns side by side.

He held a dull gaze at John who focused on the man in front of him with absolutely no emotion. John also saw the man was wearing a white cloak that cut around his midsection showing he was wearing black pants, and black boots. The cloak had odd insignia's around the neck where the line went down on both sides, and a high standing collar. They were black with a single dot in the middle. He lastly, had a staff on his back in a diagonal fashion with a cross end.

"**You are the culmination of a thousand lifetimes of planning? I must say that's interesting when you don't have any access to chakra,"** The figure said as he stepped forward only a few feet away from the Master chief before continuing. **"But I mustn't argue with the flow of the peace... Or fate in that matter." **He finished before waiting for the spartan to answer.

"..."

**"..."**

"..."

**"..."**

"..."

But didn't get any except the Spartan's visor staring directly at the horned being. Still and cold like, with no humor present whatsoever.

**"You don't have to be in denial... I understand what is going on."** The pale man said as his face didn't even shuffle a muscle.

Chief still didn't answer. Not feeling at liberty to utter a word.

The man continued. **"Your system is filled with valor, extreme audacity. And you are perhaps the luckiest spirit I have ever come to witness, but I sense no fear. Fear is what manifests our minds..."** The pale man then came closer to the unresponsive Spartan. **"****But I sense none in you. I also sense something else within your mind.**" The figure said as he squinted his eyeballs. **"I see a man with more machine than his mind...**"

"Who or what are you?" John finally asked as his arms were still strapped to the sides.

The man stood still looking up at Chief's orange lined visor before turning his back to him. John was however trying to possibly think of an escape method.

**"My birth name, Hamura Otsutsuki. And what I am is of no importance."** The man revealed to be Hamura said before turning his full attention to Master Chief. **"And I brought you here to stop you from leaving the world..."**

John was about to reply until he was interrupted by Hamura.** "You are given the chance to stop the killing, or to postpone it for brightness to take effect." **Hamura said

"Let me down..." John said in a low tone not wanting to play prisoner for the third time. He didn't have a plan yet, and this was probably the most rational one he could think of. Hamura looked at him for a second before blinking his eyes.

John then felt the gravity's pull toward the void. At first he was expecting to fall into nothingness but instead, he felt his knee's hit the floor making him go into a kneeling position. Staring at the clear floor all he could see was practically nothing. Not even glass or energy based, but he managed to hit a solid surface. Cortana once told him of light becoming solid for photons, but he thought this only applied to forrunner tech. Not this.

John looked up at Hamura before standing fully, towering over the short man. Hamura didn't stutter or flinch. John applied a more anger pressure to the man by standing fully straight up and saying. "Now, talk."

His mind set was getting back to earth but instead he winds up in a pocket dimension with an unknown being and then being suspended in absolutely nothingness. His wonderment to know where he was was beginning to become old, he had ended up in so many odd places before and this was becoming pointless to even ask anymore.

"**Your attempt to leave the planet almost altered the plan.**" Hamura claimed with a shake of his head in disappointment.

"What plan?" John questioned sternly. This whole disaster was part of a plan? Was Del Rio not ever responsible? John had tried to look over the surveillance footage but due to the impact of the crash, it was nearly unreadable, but John was gonna give the former A.I the benefit of the doubt. There were no other explanations to his armor's lock up other than pure coincidence.

John had double checked his armor's schematincs once it was on the lock in stations, and the only problem with it minus the partly destroyed helmet was nothing at all.

Hamura didn't answer... He simply looked at chief with an aloof look of not caring whatsoever. Chief asked again. "What. Plan?" He was tired of the waiting, tired of the unknown questions...

He WANTED answers.

"**You had met my brother earlier... Hagoromo. He said you were the one.**" Hamura said while Chief suddenly found himself several feet away from him in the blink of an eye across the void.

Chief didn't move as he stared and continued to listen.

**"The pillar of prophecy... The one who would aid the child of prophecy in his time of need and be there for him when the time calls. My brother felt shifts in the balance of the universe, someone changed something, but one conclusion opened to another beginning... Thus, a new story was born, but a hero needs a pillar to hold him up when he is in need. From beginning to ending.**" Hamura stated afar from Chief who took a step forward

"I don't want any part of it. My mission is to protect humanity. And this _isn't_ my world..." John said as he stood like a statue.

**"I know it isn't... But what gave it away?**" Hamura questioned coyly.

"It took time to figure it out... And reality for me to know this wasn't my world." John said simply. "But I have to get to Earth... Lives are in danger." John stated seriously as he tried to remember what he was doing before he passed out.

"**Lives are in danger here as well." **Hamura countered as he looked into the orange visor and deep within the soul of John-117.** "Things beyond everyone's control, even mine. That will take place in the next coming years... And only you know of it."**

"Its my duty as a soldier to defend humanity." John claimed silently in his _"Dead and Serious tone"_.

"**This is humanity we're speaking of." **

John said nothing as he turned around and began scanning the area for a corner space to leave from. He thought of maybe he entered a sub pocket dimension between his reality and the other one, and if he found the right one. He might be able to return to his world after all and save his hardships throughout and in.

"**And then what... Will you try to end the Didact?"**

Hamura watched as The Master Chief stood completely still like a statue. He had hit a raw nerve with that comment before continuing.**"The galaxy brought you here to stop someone, **_**far **_**worse than the Didact from happening and coming to be. It is significant that you stay... And if that doesn't happen, and the prophecy isn't true or fulfilled... Then all hope is lost forever, and reality will be nothing more than a dream."** Hamura said to Chief.

**"The world you live in is created by chakra, and those who use it for glory, also use it for pure sinful needs... But you were summoned here for a reason... Many reasons."** Hamura said as he remembered what had happened in the everlasting time period within the spirit world. Time meant nothing in here. What seemed like a millennium seemed like an hour. What seemed like yesterday was today. What was then is now.

"**The Didact will not come here...And you won't escape..." **Hamura warned.

John in the meantime was not moving from his position.

"The how do I return?" It wasn't becoming repetitive, but really his soul mission. Humanity was probably- NO. He wouldn't let theses thoughts cloud his mind, not now...

"**You can't..."** Hamura said before appearing behind John suddenly but not making him flinch.

**"You could spend the next millennium searching for earth... But you will not find it. You won't. It's pointless. But concerning with you though. that won't be any problem at all."** Hamura said making John turn slowly and looking down before asking.

"What does that mean?" John thought this man had said something wrong. His mind had been through too much and anything seemed to be possible at the moment. He just wasn't getting the understanding of the riddle

"**You could waste... MILLIONS OF LIFETIMES searching for you organization in space... And you won't find them... But in your current state that is all you really have... Time, and time alone, for all of eternity...**." Hamura claimed. Making John try to process the riddle but not clearly understanding the ghost like being. John looked at him before saying. "I don't understand."

Hamura sighed before taking a step back and rethink a way to pronounce what he was saying to the spartan.** "The pillar of prophecy is not as strong as the child of prophecy...But luckier than him and everyone else... But in order to achieve how lucky you were..." **Hamura paused for a moment. **"You were bestowed, a gift." **

"A gift?" John questioned. This seemed to be a scary thought since he couldn't really understand what Hamura was gesturing.

"**Yes, a gift like no other, a gift that will make you different from everyone else... Most of everyone. You age**** no more..**" Hamura said making Chief take a step back.** " You will walk on the planet as an ageless savior. You won't ever die of old age. ****Seeing you has taken different highlights of the word machine. You lack humanity, and seem to have little to no faith for anyone. Always relying on yourself. But when you fail you silently wallow in your own failures like a cowardice fool"**

The Master Chief was standing with his fingers slowly moving forward. "Are you saying I'm... Immortal?" It wasn't anything he could reach or grasp around had become from worse. To horrible in a matter of days. And this just topped it all off.

"**It wasn't my decision... But after entering a different area to another in a matter of seconds, combined with your heritage... It accumulated it all up to immorality. But know this, you can still perish from wounds sustained in battle..." **Hamura said as he felt as sudden pressure in the air. "**Our time has been cut short. Know this spartan, every life you save changes the balance, whether good or for worse. But do not give up. There are and will be chances you can get home." **Hamura stated suddenly breaking the ice.

Master chief's head shot up before he asked suddenly. "How?"

Hamura didn't answer immediately... But when he did he closed his emotionless eyes and said.

"**Time will tell... But remember... Become a man... Not machine." **Hamura finished as the world around John darkened to the point of being absolutely being nothingness...

"Wait!" John said loudly before trying to step forward and grasp the man. His fingers grasped nothing and he felt an unimaginable burning sensation at the base of his skull. He touched it lightly before it began to grow. It only grew...

And grew...

And grew...

And grew...

Until the point John felt as if his entire skull was on fire...

He then fell backwards...

And he fell...

And he fell...

And he fell...

Letting gravity pull him down into the dark abyss below John only closed his eyes, believing his time was finally up...

...

...

..

..

.

.

**THUMP!**

"Uhhhhggggg." Came from John lips as felt his back smash into the ground hardly, resulting the wind to be knocked out of him. Either he had fallen asleep while falling or the fall was never that bad to begin with.

He layed on the ground for a few moments to ease the overcoming sense of vertigo that was consuming him. After consulting with his mental equilibrium, he opened his eyes to get the view of green leaves on tree branches up above, and the star filled night sky.

He sat up observing where he was and it was no where he recognized. He could hear running water a few feet from him, the sound of crickets, and he was currently sitting in the middle of a dense forest. The sky was partially clear with a bit of a white haze added to it, and stars could be easily seen through the clear sky. There was a very soft mist touched, just barely, to the area around him.

Or smoke from the thickness and speed it was traveling with the wind. Quickly pressing his hands down and standing up. He looked around to see that several of the tree's in a straight line had slash marks. Some were split in half from the trunk with numerous broken branches. There was the smell of smoke in the area, scorch marks and he could make out yelling in the distance.

John sat down for a moment, thinking of what just happened. What Hamura had said to him. He would never be able to get back. This was probably the biggest blow to him in days. All his planning. All his devotion and everything else had absolutely been pointless. He didn't know what Hagoromo or Hamura were. If they weren't Forerunners, or gods, then what on earth were they? John was out of ideas at the moment but that didn't really matter to him. What really mattered was what they told him.

He was immortal...

He would never die of old age.

Never become sick.

Never grow old.

At first in John's senses, he didn't quite care or even have the though to understand it, it didn't have a strong impact on him, but after thinking it over. It didn't feel right. Even though he was given the chance to die in battle from wounds, he didn't feel like he deserved it. Billions of humans had died with meaning, yet he wouldn't. That's if someone killed him though. He knew he would die in battle even though he was claimed by his own drill instructor that he was "Unkillable". Then again, becoming immortal was never on his to do list. His to do list consisted of returning to service to fight against anything that posed a threat to humanity and extinguish it. Until that was completed he couldn't die.

Not yet.

But until then he desperately needed to get back to the Infinity.

John looked around again until he saw his Pelican across the river. What alarmed him though is that it looked like it had crashed next to a lake in the thick mud. John got up once more and raced through the rushing river to observe the damages. The 5 foot deep water's that raced downstream would have easily swept any medium sized man but due to John's excessive weight and heightened muscles, he carelessly jogged through the waters without any signs of difficulty.

Once he came up to the side of the Pelican's hull he began assessing the damages. He quickly saw the engine was smoking, the wings were scratched up but no signs of significant damage, and the tree's along with the mud softened the impact. John went around to the back and examined the insides by pulling down one of the fuse boxes. He saw it wasn't heavily damaged internally so that was good, but after looking through one hole he saw that many of the crates holding weapons inside went over to one side of the hull, and this caused the Pelican to sink in the mud a few inches, making it unable to properly lift off.

It would need a tremendous amount of force to remove the 15 ton flying craft and prime it for take off. John closed the side compartment with a slight push and went toward the back of the Pelican's loading hatch. Prying his hand's underneath he tried to get a solid grip to pull it out, but couldn't clutch onto anything. He placed his hands underneath further and began pulling inward while pushing his feet down.

As he pulled with a minimal of his strength he got negative results but the sound of the creaking metal. Next he tried hauling it with a good fraction of power and saw the Pelican move slightly and creeks in the metal.

John finally tried to jerk it out with all he could, but heard a very unsettling squashing sound below him. He looked down to see he was sinking in and and his feet were now ankle deep in the mud. Stepping out while rubbing his hands together, he heard more yelling in the distance become even louder. He looked at his HUD scanner and saw 17 blimps on it just barely outside the 25 meters coming towards him.

Thinking that someone could be in trouble he decided to investigate it. He walked over to the side hatch of the Pelican and opened it's weapon lock box. He reached for the first weapon inside which happened to be a SRS99-S5 Anti-Material sniper rifle with infrared scoping. He thought of replacing the weapon for something a bit original and easy to handle. While the SRS99-S5 Anti-Material sniper rifle was extraordinary for long range it was terrible for short/medium range combat, and it was very loud.

However, since it was night, anyone who was caught tin the scopes view would be outlined, strengthening John's already superior vision. Anyone who would be detrimental to John would have to sneak around him, if only it were that easy of course.

Being silent wasn't priority though, but it would be best if he remained under enemy radar. When looking in the box for ammo he saw a dark pole. Upon looking at it closer he saw that the bole was a suppressor. While it did indeed coat sounds from a certain length it greatly limited the weapons accuracy as well. Seeing that John was going to be in close quarters with the numerous tree's and he could keep the sound non-existent it would be a win-win situation.

He took the suppressor out and tightened it on the barrel of the sniper rifle. Noting that the rifle was even longer now he would have to be careful and not catch it on anything.

John loaded a fresh magazine into the rifle and watched as it linked to his HUD. He could only carry 16 rounds of this weapon so he would have to use it sparingly. He then reached for a M392 DMR battle rifle. This was a very precise weapon and John was a near expert when it came to operating it. Even though he preferred the semiautomatic weapons he thought precision would stump everything else tonight. After collecting a couple 15 round magazine cartridges he locked the black hatch to the weapons box. Before opening it again and looking inside. At the very bottom of the weapons box was a single canister of BIOFOAM.

As of recently, his biofoam injectors needed to be refiled but he hadn't figured out how to do that as of yet. Grabbing the canister and clipping it on the back of his waist, he then closed the weapons box. Turning around to get a full view of the dark forest, he jogged over to a tall stone near the river bank and climbed it. He activated his night vision inside his helmet since the lights on the would attract unwanted attention.

His vision went from dark to illuminating green within seconds and everything became clear as crystal. Even though he could see clearly in the dark the helmets night vision created a dark green outline across any living thing. Granting him a cleaner shot to the target.

John steadily turned the safety off the sniper rifle before he looked toward his scanner and saw the major activity was happening toward north, approximately 146 feet into the forest. This was good though, he was an expert at taking advantage of his surroundings and known for tuning the tables against his targets.

He slowly slid down the rock by trudging slowly on its side for a few meters, before he walked off it and back onto the grassy ground. Stepping over a log while listening carefully, he checked the ammo once more and saw he was full. He wouldn't be taking any grenades since that would bring the whole forest on top of him.

His HUD beeped loudly alerting him of someone presence. Crouching down behind a rock he looked over to the distant tree's to see a three men. All wearing white vests that looked heavily threaded with gray lining. Squinting his eyes he saw that they all wore headbands with 3 strange oval-like circle's in the middle, and also had their faces covered with cloths, and wore dark pants with boots.

John however caught the sight of three rapid approaching targets from the right. He looked through his rifles scope to assess the battle about to begin. Placing his finger off the trigger guard and on the trigger itself, he felt the hardened pressure in the air. The strong blow of the wind blew through the branches above him making them creek softly while a few leaves broke off.

His lips felt increasingly dry, and in attempt to give them moister he licked them while straightening his lining with the rifle.

He always did this before an engagement. He measured the wind velocity, which was 13 mph east, so it wouldn't cause the bullet to veer off course. He took note where the men were standing and any possible routes they might take so John could easily pick them out one by one if given the chance. He then checked the distance between them and calculated through the scope it was about 17 meters. The three men didn't know what happened until a silver wire shot down stabbing the ground making them jump back slightly. One of them saw the wire was holding those explosive notes.

"(Sore wa amushda) _IT'S AN AMBUSH!_" One of the ninja yelled as the note blew up, causing a dust cloud to form and chunks of rocks to go flying.

John had installed a sound detecting subtitles/voice analyzer in his helmet to re-establish what they were saying if he was ever caught outside the Infinity again, which was a good thing to. The words said went through configuration through a voice recorder, and last it was said back to him in proper English.

He didn't have time to realize it until he saw a small man try to slash at the garbed man who saw it coming, and skillfully leaped away out of the knifes slash. John had to be a bit amazed by the mans acrobatic moves and muscle strength, But only then did John get a closer look through the scope and see that small man features and build was almost childlike...

Until what he saw was true. That man he saw was a boy...

Just a child in fact, looked no older than 13.

Why on earth was a kid fighting in a battle like this? This gave John the same feeling of being recruited back when he was only 7 years old. Being forced into fighting for humanity's survival against almost anything. He never fought against it though. He was simply intrigued with the basis of becoming a Spartan and leaving for Reach. He never regretted his decision since that day.

Until 6 weeks ago that is. Everything had become a the worst of many failed lifetime achievements...

John watched as the child dodged a punch from the man, but kicked him in the face and lept back falling toward the ground. John wanted to intervene but saw the boy stick... Stick like a spider, to a tree trunk by standing on it, before leaping off, performing a couple rolls in the air and landing gracefully. John saw another presence and looked to see a tall thin man approach behind him.

"(Yūshūna sakuhin Nawaki-san wa, watashitachi wa isshun no tame no jikkō-ji ni sorera o motte iru) _Excellent work Nawaki-san, we have them on the run for the moment_." The man's physical description could be described as two words.

Utterly unnatural.

He skin was pure white putting John's pale skin to shame. He had long black hair that went down toward his lower back, his nose was long and pointy like the branch of a tree, a narrow jaw that was pointed, a long angular like neck. And even though it was dark The Master chief swore the man's eyes looked just like a snakes. The color was around was green but the iris... It was just like looking into the eye's of a snake. His eyes also had purple lines going down the bridge of his nose giving a odd sight to see. He was wearing a dark green vest, a black body suit with long sleeves that covered his entire hands, bandages around his ankles that went up his knees, black sandals, and a headband with a swirl on it.

The boy who had light brown hair, peach skin, blushes on his cheeks smiled widely at the skinny man behind him. "(Anata ga sensei arigatō) _THANK YOU SENSEI_!" The boy said loudly and enthusiastically. The boy was wearing a dark blue shirt with a tan under longsleeve hoodie combo, with baggy tan cargo pants that went down to his ankles, a pouch wrapped around his waist, a similar headband to the pale man, and finally a bandage wrapped around his leg. The boy Nawaki looked nothing of a killer, let alone a fighter.

From John's observation he was loud, inexperienced, and a walking target with those type of clothes on...

In all said and shown... This kid wasn't going to last an hour.

The man looked at the boy Nawaki however and looked into the forest before saying. "You take first inspection Nawaki-san, we have them now!" Nawaki nodded before running off toward where the men had run off to. Just as John was looking through his scope he saw something in the dirt approximately 30 yards away from him...and saw a half covered explosive tag in the dirt.

Acting on pure instinct, John jumped straight and over the boulder. He sprinted forward through the brush and past the tree's like a bullet. His feet created small craters while he ran forward to stop the boy from getting himself killed in an explosion. The boy was racing almost like an athlete, he was probably the fastest kid John had ever seen, but dumb for not watching where he was running himself into. John himself had superior genes since he was a foot taller than everyone else when he was a kid, an excpetion for Sam, but he wasn't the fastest.

That was... Kelly.

Getting his thoughts out of the dark, John saw the boy was about to be snuck up on by a man sitting in one the branches in a tree 32 feet above. He was looking down and began performing rapid hand signs. John took this as a warning and fired at the man while sprinting.

**BBBBZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ-SNAP**

The silencer had done its job and ceased all of the major sound in the area besides a small yet barely noticeable snap. The man's fast paced hand movement was halted as a 114MM sized bullet punched through skin, blood, tissue and caught him directly above the left breast striking his heart, killing him almost instantly. A throaty grunt escaped his lips before flying towards the ground and against a tree. He smacked the head first against the tree's bark, snapping his head backward at an unnatural angle and slumped down to the side.

John however paid no mind to this and kept running as the boy neared the explosive tag...

_3 feet away..._

John grunted as he kicked the forward almost nearing the speed of an actual bullet before he jumped forward and had his arms reached out to push the boy out of the way...

_A few inches..._

The boys foot was directly above it now. His foot came down until it was too late.

**BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM**

Orochimaru knew his task like the back of his hand. His overall patience had been wearing thin as of all day, but due to the conflicts within the world mistakes were bound to happen... But as of right now he didn't know what to call it. He didn't know what happened, but one minute he see's one of his subordinates run off to chase down the other Kumo in the area for integration, but instead he see's a massive dark blur take out Nawaki, and enormous detonation of an explosive tag in the same place.

Orochimaru covered his eyes as the flame and dust grew over the area, nearly tousching him.

"Oh no..." He wispered in a rasp.

After the fire's ceased a bit, he walked a few steps but was nearly caught by shuriken flying through the air. He dodged shifted upward and saw 12 Kumo nin jump down upon him...Orochimaru looked up as began to gather his chakra for a snake clone.

"_Nawaki will have to wait..." _Orochimaru thought grimly as he rushed forward to fight off the Cloud nin...

XXXXXXX

"No..." John muttered as he looked down upon the unconscious boy in the dry dirt.

His right hand was hanging off by a clump of ripped flesh and the bone was sticking out. It began to bleed profusely like a river. John acting quickly as he untied the headband around his forehead and wrapped it very tightly around the boy's arm, hopefully to stop the bleeding. Looking down John too account that the flesh on his legs were nearly burnt off, and John could see the burnage was nearly to the bone and the nerve damage was nearly untreatable.

His torso was covered with burns. Small pieces of rock embedded into his flesh, some deeper than others. If they weren't removed properly or in time, they would be infatuated with infections in only minimal time. But looking over the boys overall injuries it would be the blood loss before the infection took even a slight effect. John reached for a biofoam canister around his utility belt on the back and noticed he only had one. He would have to make this count.

He looked at his scanner and saw the men from before were advancing in another direction, but a few more were advancing toward Chief's way. Chief looked at the boy before feeling for a pulse on the side of his neck and using the sensitivity of the armor's fingertips.

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

_(Thump)_

"_He's alive..." _John acknowledged in his mind slowly but took notice to the boy's obvious deadly distress. He carefully gripped the boy's small frame and leaned him up against a tree to sit him up right. The boy had a black left eye beginning to form from chief crashing into him and knocking him out possibly, but if he hadn't he wouldn't be here by now. John twisted the canister and pointed it at the boys burns.

Biofoam is used to heal cuts, lacerations,contusions, burn and electrical burns, but the pain of using it was described as "thousands of tiny knives stabbing" or 'Fire ant's crawling underneath your skin.' John hoped the boy, Nawaki was his name wasn't going to wake up.

Ever so slowly, John opened the nozzle and began applying the white medical cream to his knee and left a white stripe down his leg toward his foot. Nawaki's face contorted slightly to the pain. Then it began to twitch rapidly. John did the same thing on the other leg quickly and noticed the biofoam was almost dry in the canister. He let the biofoam slowly spread across the boys shins and let it cover the charred skin.

Nawaki began to groan silently from the burning sensation as he was still knocked out. John used what was left in the canister on Nawaki's stump hand that was still hanging. Nawaki began to groan louder from the agonizing the sizzialing sensation that was burning his nerves.

His sensor beeped and John held his gloved hand up to the boys mouth as several men race by up the tree's. John then hard the boy began to silently scream as he noticed he was waking up. His eyes began scanning everywhere around him, he was pale as all color had left his face, and he looked extremely tired...

Then he saw Chief.

And the Master Chief looked back at him...

The boy's face scrunched up, like he was trying to process something before his eyes closed again and his head slumped to the side...

John felt slight panic as he felt the boys neck again... But felt nothing. He couldn't see or hear any breathing signs from Nawaki. John placed the boy on the ground before trying to resuscitate Nawaki by lightly pumping his chest to stimulate oxygen through his lungs. The blood loss was beginning to take it's toll and this boy was beginning to succumb to his wounds. Until something registered in John's mind.

He had a chance to save the lives of his team but he failed. He had a chance to save the lives of the Infinity but failed that. He didn't know whether Roland's life could have been saved or not but he had a slim chance to deactivate him to probably take him back to earth but failed again. He had a chance to save Avery Johnson from 343 guilty spark, the Earth from the composers rays, Cortana from the Gravemind AND the Didact. Keyes from the flood, Miranda from the Prophet of truth, and Halsey from herself.

He had chances to save all of these men and women who impacted his life for greater and everyone elses, but he failed to do so... Miserably. It seemed when it came to save those close around chief, they would surely be killed in different ways. But when it came to the mission, the overall goal at hand he would succeed. After numerous examples and feelings of the quarrels he came to a conclusion that maybe his good luck.. was bad luck to everyone close to him.

Was that truly the reason why? Was his luck the cause of it all?

John was always praised by allies in the past because of it. But the covenant wouldn't deny him the demon title he was given after killing thousands of Covenant forces. But in retrospect, he had plenty of names he had given to the Covenant. Murderers, killers, blood suckers, monsters, family rippers, planet genocides, prophet's bitches, the names went on forever. To a toll though, his luck had never gone against him, but aybe it was the bad luck to everyone.

The death kind of karma.

Looking down at the poor defensless boy, John tightened his lip and denied the fact this boy was dead, knowing he could have done something about it. He had taken many hours of field medical training and passed with flying colors, this wasn't an exercise when he could redo it, this was reality. He was never appointed as medic though. He was a killer, not a healer. He could have been faster he thought. This boy was probably dead of blood loss, his hand was almost off, and he was probably suffering from a concussion from Chief's blow to push him.

This would not stop him. He knelt down reached behind the boy and picked him up. He held him close and looked in his scanner for anyone who would get in his way.

HUD: 7 targets directly in front/ 4 on left/ 2 on right/ 1 above

John stepped up and began walking toward the trunk of the tree with a DMR in one hand with the butt of the stock pinned on his chest for recoil. John needed to get to the Pelican and take this boy to the Infinity for medical treatment. Even though he didn't know this boy, he wouldn't let him die gruesomely or be left here to die alone. Besides, it was his duty as a soldier to evac any civilians, and this kid fell under that category under section 2 page 3 sentence 4 of the U.N.S.C . Spartan regulation handbook. But he needed to- no.

He had to hurry.

Looking up through the scope, John aimed the DMR at the first man in the tree positioning himself to drop down below. Wanting to take the element of surprise away from them. John aimed at the man's head by aiming down his sights and pulled the trigger.

He wouldn't fail the life of this kid...

Not by a long shot.

* * *

**AUTHORS NOTE: Please leave a review of your thoughts of what you read. Also Please state anything wrong or if there was anything I could fix up. Reviews are greatly appreciated and ideas are needed. **

**-SHIPWRECK5897**


	5. The cycle continues

**AUTHORS NOTE: ****Have a Happy Thanksgiving!**

****DISCLAIMER/ I don't own Halo or Naruto****

* * *

"_Depression is not a sign of weakness... It is a sign of you have been strong for too long."_

-Unknown

* * *

Chapter 5: The cycle continues

* * *

The DMR smoked from the barrel as one man plunged from the tree after catching 3 bullets to the upper chest.

He smacked the ground and kicking up some dirt before someone yelled. _"SON OF A BITCH!"_ In a thick Japanese voice as John looked up behind him in the tree's through the scope, and caught another one trying to sneak up on him. He felt a presence to his left who was hiding behind a tree.

He sprinted across and caught the man trying to hid. When the man who was holding what looked like a katana got a full view of The Master chief, his face contorted to a stunned look. _"What in the-."_

The man would never finish his sentence as The Master chief shot the man between the eyes, making him fly back from the impact of the bullet.

His back hit the ground with a loud thud as blood leaked from a smoking hole in his forehead. John looked at his scanner and saw he was only 33 meters away from his Pelican. Right now he had to get Nawaki onto the Pelican and prep him for field surgery to stop the bleeding internally and externally.

John heard a noise to the side and saw what looked like the same knives flying at him cutting through the air. He quickly turned his back toward the small steel projectiles as they bounced off his back and gave cover to protect Nawaki.

He turned to shoot at the knife thrower and saw he had disappeared from his peripheral vision. John still didn't know how they could cover such a large amount distance in a matter of seconds. It almost reminded him of the Promethean knights that would disappear and reappear across the battleground in the blink of an eye. This teleportation the warriors used wasn't exactly comparable to the slipspace translocation the Promethean knights wielded.

He looked at his scanner once more, then looked in the direction of his Pelican. He ignored the blimps around him and began to sprint while holding Nawaki close to his chest, making sure he didn't crush the small boys frame. He kept a steady eye on his radar and kept his footsteps to a minimal.

John could see everything within a 25 meter radius on the lower part of his HUD, but that didn't mean they couldn't see him. His scanner was modified into his suits main port which was already connected to his brain, meaning once his scanner picked them up, John was immediately aware of their hiding spot in the center of his brain.

He looked around and observed all of the possible hiding spots and thought of taking advantage of them. The tree's held several but could not support his weight, the rocks in the area were not big enough, bushes were not thick enough, but shadows provided excellent cover from sight. But sight was the least of their problems now...

He was more worried about traps since he wasn't able to detect them. In the past or this world traps, were hand made meaning they were undetectable with his technology. In his time traps could be found and traced with a radiation detector, but now he had to be very cautious of where he was running. Otherwise he could very well step on a bomb by accident.

HUD: 4 unknown hostiles on left 12 yards/ 6 unknown hostiles on left 17 yards away/ 13 unknown hostiles forward 27 feet away

John began to see more and more men appear in the area from all different sides. His hand reached behind for his sniper rifle. Keeping Nawaki's weight on him, he steadied his grip on the rifles grip and aim up. He caught a man in the side as the bullet cut through him and went onward into the sky. John fired two more times, resulting in a pair of bodies falling off the branches and hitting the ground dead. When his HUD told him someone appeared behind him, he automatically slammed the stock backwards.

The attacker behind had his face smashed in, killing him instantly.

His body flew right into a tree, smashing the bark into splinters.

He could hear loud yelling and cursing in the distance, not very far from his spot. Some traces of anger were evident, some shock, and yells of pain mixed with anguish. He looked at his scanner and he had neutralized 4 of the attackers but was left with an exceptional amount.

He eased up a bit as he pressed himself against the tree, staying within the darkest part and thinking of a formidable plan. He didn't know where he was or how far the Infinity was from his current destination. For all he knew he could be halfway across the planet from the Infinity.

But before he could figure out the distance, he needed to release the Pelican from the mud without alerting the entire area of his presence, and on top it all off, he to tend a seriously injured child in need of serious medical assistance. The last reason made John's blood boil in extreme displeasure. When the covenant had butchered billions of innocent human lives on countless planets, it threw him into a cold rage.

He took notice that the blimps following him passed by him, not taking notice of him. He could hear people running through the tree branches above but let them pass toward the left, missing him by a few feet. John looked down at Nawaki and only saw the top of his head against his chest plate. There was a deep gash on the side of his head that needed to be tended, but John didn't have anything else to use for him.

He continued to listen for any shuffles in the dirt or anything that came out of place but heard nothing but the crickets song around him. He looked at Nawaki's bleeding head again before setting the boy down on his side in the dirt. John tore a piece of Nawaki's sweater off and tied it around his head, creating a temporary bandage.

He took a glance at his scanner but saw nothing... All at that very second, something appeared suddenly on his radar. He didn't have time to react when a puff of smoke appeared in front of him surprising him for a moment until he saw person jump at him. John ducked as the person flew over him and slammed into the tree's trunk. Using the momentum from the leap the attacker pushed themselves off and aimed a kick on back of the spartan's head.

John however saw this and blocked the oncoming foot with his palm and tossing the person aside. The masked attacker back flipped in the air and shot a wire at John. He could see a shiny spinning object fly towards him and caught it. The masked person stood across from John who jumped back to shoot the person in front of him. When John saw the person attacking him, he noticed that it was a woman.

She had a mouth mask on her, brown hair and blue eyes with a straight nose. She wore a vest without sleeves or pockets and a pair of dark pants. On her feet she wore similar snages and on her forearms she had metal arm-guards that had leather bindings underneath. She had a very lean figure that was quite muscular and donned a metallic head band around her left arm.

He tried to fire at her but she surprisingly kicked her leg up making under the gun, making go off in the air and out of his hand. John silently cursed and threw a punch she surprisingly ducked under and gripped around Chiefs thigh with her leg, trying to tip him over in a Judo leg lock.

However, she found this hard to accomplish. The armored clad super solider easily weighed over 995 pounds, which was equivalent to half a ton and trying to budge him would not be an easy task. John sprung his leg forward making the women fly off and away before he reached for a combat knife on his utility belt. He twirled it in a reverse grip and stared at the women a couple of yards away from him.

"Anata wa taiyō ga futatabi jōshō miru koto wa arimasen!"(You will never see the sun rise again) She screamed and swung herself at him in a flurry of kicks. John sidestepped her and lunged the blade at the women's jugular to stab her. She saw this and quickly back flipped over the strike and landed a kick at John's visor.

The kick caught him by surprise but what really took him off guard was when he looked forward the woman was running up a tree. Literally running up a horizontal tree without strain or wires, which was impossible in John's opinion. Unless the woman had anti gravity boots or some type of pulling system she shouldn't be able to do this. She continued to run and while doing so she began making hand seals again, and this time a copy of her appeared right beside her.

John saw on his scanner this woman must have done one of those illusions that didn't appear on his scanner.

It would seem from his first battle when the people were able to create copies of themselves, the replica itself wouldn't be able to attack him. Considering it wasn't not real.

The copy back flipped on the ground and lunged forward, pretending to make Chief flinch back and fight it. Chief did the exact opposite of what this woman intended him to do by rushing through the illusion that popped into nothingness and jumped straight up toward her. Her eyes widened for a second before she tried to hurl a shuriken at him, but in his eyes, the shuriken was moving slow. About the same speed a playing card would take to hit the ground when dropped.

He swiped his blade up, deflecting the shuriken and creating a small spark. The shuriken ricoched and came flying back to the woman who had to dodge it by jumping on another branch. John embedded his knife in the bark of the tree to hold himself up and looked at the woman directly in the eye and said slowly. "You don't want to piss me off..."

The woman looked at him angrily since she couldn't understand him, before sprinting along the wood of the tree with a massive blade she had sheathed on her calf. The blade wasn't long to be a sword and wasn't short enough to be a knife. She swung the tanto forward intending, to cut chiefs head off, but he ducked under it as the cleaver became stuck in the bark and he kicked at her with his right foot. She sidestepped it before aiming a jab at his head, which resulted in her nearly breaking her fingers from the hit. John then swung both legs up but the woman dodge it, aimed a chop at John's arm. John let go of his knife and free fell to the ground bending his knees to absorb the impact.

The woman jumped down from the tree free falling gracefully to the ground. Her eyes narrowed before she began performing handsigns rapidly. John quickly grabbed his sniper rifle from his back and was about to pull the trigger until he heard the woman yell._**"Earth Style: Earth Pillars!"**_

John didn't know what happened but he felt his left foot shoot up, pushing his knee that slammed into his chest and launched him in the air. It knocked out a good portion of his shields that flared and an alarm going off.

He flew back several feet seeing things in the area move in a blur. Trees were spinning in and out of existence, the ground spinning to where he saw Nawaki's form before he smashed into a tree. The tree nearly ripped out of it's roots and a cluster of leaves broke off their branches. Shaking his head he looked up and saw more and more pillars beginning to rise from the ground simultaneously like a living stairway.

John rolled to the side and stood up and began running towards the pillars rising out of the ground like lightning. He waited the right moment until he jumped on one of the pillars that launched him in the air and began sprinting across from them. He was roughly 15 feet away from her and in a clearing with Nawaki only being six feet away. He formulated the jump as he saw the woman still concentrating with an arm raised, making hundreds of rock pillars sprout from the earth.

John pushed his legs even harder, leaping as hard as he could on the next rock column that erupted from the ground. He then flew over the woman, making her eyes widen in shock from the sheer speed and velocity he flew at. John reached out with his right hand at the same tree that had his knife and grabbed onto the grip. He ripped it out before backflipping to the ground making the woman have to dash away. But she tripped over a root from the tree and fell. Hitting her head on the ground.

Her brain rattled in her skull she clutched it in pain from the force of the blow. She cleared her vision as she started to see colors fly. Locking her eyes on the target she had to quickly roll back from being squashed like a grape from the man's massive foot. She quickly got up and strategically pulled out a kunai of her own from her back pouch to fight the man with. The dizziness was still roaming in and out of her senses, resulting in her movements to be sluggish. She turned around and flashed the knife at John who clashed his knife against hers...

**SKISH!**

And right through it. The kunai broke in two and John's knife cut right into her throat like butter.

The knife plunged through the back of her throat and through the other side. Her eyes widened and a blood spot grew on the mouth part of her mask. The blood stain continued to grow in side before she coughed lightly. She gasped and choked and reached up to try and push it through. In John's sense he didn't like this... But he was left with no choice but to defend himself. John twisted the knife counterclockwise and the women's necks followed with it until-

**SNAP!**

A loud pop rang through the air as the woman's body released all tension and fell to the ground in a heap. Crows flew through the trees after hearing the loud and audible snap echo through the woods, cawing in the distance. She finally rolled into her last position as she stayed completely still. John put a boot on the women side, pushing her over. He pulled his combat knife out of the woman's throat. Eliciting the sound of her flesh ripping from the blade as it was coated in blood.

He wiped it off on a bark of a tree and sheathed it. He observed the woman who was on her left side with blood pooling out of her neck from the vertical entrance wound that opened her windpipe and esophagus. John, feeling unsatisfied, turned the woman over to truly see if she had expired from the wound... and nearly had a heart attack when he saw something he wish he hadn't... Something reminiscing from his not so far past.

Her face. Not just her face but her nose, mouth, cheeks, hairline. She. Looked like-

John continued to gaze at her facial features and came to a realization...Of what scared him the most of his kill.

Cortana... Her nose was shaped the exact same. The style of her hair was nearly identical... Her jaw line shape was... It was .

John was looking at a corpse of Cortana. He could see her lying in front of him. A failure he would always be with.

Dead silence as his audible reclaim.

He had killed her...

He did...

He did...

Killed his best friend...

His only friend.

She died and her blood would forever be on his conscious. On his hands. On his mind.

They were supposed to protect each other yet HE couldn't... He could never protect the people he cared for...

He could somehow hear her pain filled screams as she went through rampancy. It churned his inside to hear her scream... Because she would never do it. Cortana in his opinion was the bravest person he would ever know... But...

In John's mind he had just killed her again.

Thousands of thoughts and voices were coursing through his mind. Many of them were loud and harmonious feelings that were beginning to leak out. He began to sweat lightly underneath the helmet, and his throat became increasingly dry. He couldn't hear anything but the sound of a high pitched ringing.

John slowly looked at the blood splotch on his forearm and thought this was Cortana's blood. His mind was over processing details by the millisecond and becoming faster and faster with guilt. The woman's face resembled hers in so many ways it was nearly nauseating in the pit of John's stomach. He felt a sudden shift in the air even though he was in his armor and alone. The wind in the tree's grew louder and louder until he started to shake and feel very cold. So cold his skin under his armor felt like ice and he was beginning to hyperventilate silently.

This all ceased when Nawaki's fit of coughing brought John out of his mental uproar. Nawaki calmed down but began to wheeze softly. John was instantly at the boys side, carefully picking him up. The boy was looking more and more pale as dirt was stuck to his skin from the sweat. John shook his thoughts and checked the boys injured hand. It wasn't bleeding seriously anymore from the bandage, but the infection would begin if he didn't clean the wound properly or in time. John wouldn't let his past suffering divulge itself with this boys life.

His duty. It felt weird saying that now since he couldn't link with the UNSC, he sure as hell wasn't going to give up his way to finding a way home since Hamura said he had "chances" to return home. That was all the man had given him, and he wouldn't deny it. Ever.

Seeing targets continuing to scatter on his scanner toward him, John carefully picked up Nawaki and went over pick up his sniper rifle. Licking his mapping analyzer, he was given a direction to where the Pelican was before taking off.

Sprinting through the brush toward the sound of the running river, he never once looked back at the Cortana look-alike corpse. There would be no redemption for his mistakes. He'd just have to live with them. But he refused to let his mind be clouded when someones life was on the line. As he kept going towards the moving body of water, he never noticed the smoke gathering up in the sky behind him.

XXXXXXX

Within the upper middle class territory of the Hidden leaf village were an abundance of homes and shops. Many of the shops were closing and beginning to prep for the next morning, while some were still open. Many of the apartments and homes were turned off for the night and some were still lit.

Inside a medium sized apartment with light yellow walls and wooden flooring rested a young woman in bed with white sheets and around 16 years of age.

The lights were off and the room was dark save for the bright moonlight outside that made a soft blue glow enter the room.

The young woman had blond hair hair that went down her shoulders, hazel eyes, fair skin, and a rather gifted frame for being so young. She stood at 5'ft 3 inch and had a combination of a light muscular build with heavy feminine traits. Her hazel eyes appeared restless with the bags underneath them.

She tossed and turned in the bed vigorously, without getting a single moment of peace. This woman was Tsunade Senju.

She was currently on the verge of an anxiety attack since her brother had been on his first mission outside the village. He normally took D-rank missions and sometimes an E-rank, but a C-rank was possibly pushing the boundaries. She knew fully the outcome of being a genin in war with little or no experience outside the village. It was a guaranteed death sentence. It had been this way for many weeks now. More and more graves being filled and nothing being shifted for morale.

But considering her, out of all people, she was very afraid. They would be in for a big one of their lives...

Tsunade had been trained under the third Hokage who had fought in the first Shinobi war over 17 years before and was still learning medical arts. Tsunade had been raised by the man who fought in the first war, her grandfather Hashirama Senju. Both of those men had never given up in the eyes of battle when all seemed lost, yet they succeeded. Hashirama succeeded in his fight against Madara Uchiha, even though he had the power of the nine tails, and Hiruzen succeeded in becoming Hokage after the first Shinobi war and his own teachers demise.

Tsunade had not done any actual missions outside the village since the war had begun a few years prior due to the murder of her parents, but she still got around.

Tsunade turned that thought away and tried to maintain her thought on her current problem... Nawaki.

She finally sat up from her blankets showing she was wearing only simple white nightgown with buttons but didn't hide much of her figure through the thin fabric. The young blond slowly sat up and wrapped her hands around her knees and listened to her surroundings. The sound of calmness. There was no sound of talking or anything audible. She could hear the sound of her air vent doing its work by letting warm air travel throughout the cold apartment and warming it up, but other than that nothing else...

She hated the sound of the silence. She wanted her baby brother back to be in home and with her, safe and sound. She loved him dearly to the point of tears since all she had was him in her family. Throughout the last couple of wars the Senju clan had nearly gone extinct, save for her and Nawaki. It happened suddenly without warning, but more and more of her relatives began dying, and before you know it, her parents and their children were left. Their parents were the head of the Senju clan but now it was her and her brother...

Her little brother.

But now she had to give trust into Orochimaru since he was Nawaki's best chance of survival. They had trusted each other for many years through thick and thin. He would always know how to deal with the situations, no matter how dark he looked upon the world. She had been calming her friendship with him over the past few years since he had been becoming more and more devious with his work and becoming more serious as a shinobi. Being younger and more innocent, she never truly understood him and his ways, but as they became older there sights and thoughts became more and more distant.

Her mission as a kunoichi was to aid her village like everyone else.. Her brother was a wild thing who would never run out of energy, she could hope to know that he would be fine with her village. He was clever, and a bit of a daydreamer to who idolized his grandfather to no end.

It was his wish-

No. His dream to be Hokage. He had wanted to be in that position when he was only 4 year old, and had been striving towards it to no end. While he was a loud and a bit abrasive at times, he would always find the happiness within life... But recently he was becoming a rather gifted genin who had passed with the top three kids of the year in the ninja academy, and was making friends as far as the eye or mind could count.

As was Jiraiya who was a expert of Ninjutsu, Tsunade was perfecting her skills in Medical ninjutsu with her summons Katsuya, giving her the nickname "The slug princess. She was becoming gifted in that area along with her chakra enhanced strength. Orochimaru was becoming rather powerful in all ways. Her brother Nawaki was fairing it easy as well in the ninja academy. The war though had made the missions more complex and dangerous. It made him more of a target to the other nations. Gennin or children were seen as easy prey, in other words an easy target.

Becoming distressed with the lack of sleep, Tsunade pushed the hot covers off and to get out of bed. Away from the uncomfortable solitude. Tsunade's perfume was in the air and the room was quite warm. She placed her feet on the cold wooden floor, and walked over to her window to get some fresh air in the stuffy room. She placed her fingers under the frame of the window and tugged it slightly open.

The wind softly hit her skin and faintly blew a few loose strands of her. She looked over the village, past the front gate, past the dense forest and looked at the peak of the mountains in the distance. Tsunade imagined a time where there was no more dying and there was life. Nawaki brought life to her though. Even though their parents were gone he always had a smile on his face. His eyes twinkled and he had the cute little smile that would beam like the sun.

Tsunade looked down at the road of the village before seeing a few shopkeepers sweeping the road in front of their businesses to make them look more radiant. The man who owned the business was away on business and left his young son to watch over the shop and was rather young. Around 10 his name wass Teuchi Ichiraku. He had been in charge of his fathers shop until further notice. Possibly due to the war. He was up cleaning for who knows how long in Tsunade's mind.

But from the dried sweat on the young boys forehead and heavy bags under his eyes, it was raging in the hours of hard labor.

Tsunade had been alone now for almost 1 day and she was already feeling loneliness. It was becoming too dreadful. Tsunade shut her window, silencing the room from the soft breeze and began making her way to the kitchen for a drink. She passed by a few photos along the hallway wall.

Mostly of her mother and father. Some contained Nawaki and other non-living relatives, and a few had Hashirama in them.

Some were of her teammates during training days with her teacher, but most of the photo's were filled with memories of her family.

Tsunade flicked the light on, revealing the mid-modest kitchen filled with produce and accessories. In the middle of the room was a medium sized dining table. She walked to the fridge near the corner and opened it to get a small bottle of her Sake. Tsunade reached in the cold fridge and took the bottle out. Twisting the lid off and taking the scent of the strong aroma she licked her lips. She had begun drinking less than a month ago, but it was to a dare from Jiraiya..

And it was probably the worst idea since Tsunade could not stomach it the first attempt she tried it. But it was coming along with keeping it down and in.

She looked around the empty kitchen and gained a dull look from all the food she had thrown away earlier that was begining to stack in the garbage. She had been learning and trying to cook decent meals for Nawaki after their parents death yet she seemed to burn and overcook more food than she bought.

Nawaki never complained though. Not once, but his face that held disgust almost every night said it all. Although it took one dark glance from Tsunade while she was burning the food over the stove to change his mind. That was all it took to shut him up throughout the entire dinner and eat it gratefully. Despite the constant gagging and choking.

She hoped her brother would return home. Safe and sound, and never again would he leave the village without the guidance of her family. Her that is.

This was her last thought before she took a swing of the alcohol into the restless night.

XXXXXXX

Inside the back of the Pelican seats John quickly strapped the safety belts around Nawaki's waist and shoulders. After rummaging through the weapons lock box, he applied more Bio-foam to Nawaki's hand and legs while administering a polypseudomorphine shot to keep him asleep. He didn't know if Nawaki was allergic to it or not but he really had no choice. Nawaki although moaned again and again while he was unconscious from the minor concussion.

It was a good thing Nawaki was given the shot, otherwise he would be screaming his lungs out by now.

John wrapped some skin bandages around his burnt legs to keep the wounds dry. He would have to replace the bandages the minute he got Nawaki to the medical bay from becoming infected.

While this was happening, Nawaki didn't make a single sound since the numbing effect from the biofoam calmed his nerves. He thought this was better for Nawaki's sake because if Nawaki was awake he probably would have been screaming his head off and given away their position. John looked over the boy to make sure he was fastened safely in his seat and had been given enough Bio-foam to stop the bleeding. John looked over the boys stomach and saw the eternal bleeding had stopped momentarily but dirt from the blast had become mixed into the wounds which would resulting an infection. John had to get the Pelican out of the mud and get Nawaki to the INFINITY... And fast.

Chief stood up after finishing his minor medical procedure with the injured boy and exited the back. The hatches light went from green indicating it was locked, to red meaning it was armed.

He once again went onto the muddy ground and went over to the wing. If he moved it up and released if from the mud he would have a better chance at taking off. he looked up at the wing before gripping the back of it and pulling as hard as he could without bending the metal.

The Pelican's hull began to move slowly out of the mud and took a great amount of effort. As John kept tugging he was beginning to sink in the mud, almost up to his ankles. John pulled his feet out of the thick clay like mud, and kept dragging the Pelican toward the dry land. John kept doing this for a few minutes until he saw his scanner pick up movement near the left.

Then the right.

John looked at his scanner without letting go of the wing and kept a straight face as he saw something he wish he hadn't.

HUD: UNKNOWN AMOUNT OF TARGETS APPROACHING FROM SOUTH

HUD: E.T.A: 23.7 seconds.

Chief kept calm as he quickly walked to the black lock box on the left frontal side containing weapons and ripped it open. He scanned for a second inside for a weapon, before he reached inside and pulled out a M739 light machine gun "SAW" off the brackets. The white combo orange styled gun with _UNSC_ engraved on the left side shined as the moonlight gleamed off it. Chief took the safety off after loading the first drum magazine in the weapons receiver.

He then reached for MA5K carbine with an attachable light, and clicked on his back's magnetic clasp while taking 5 ammunition magazines.

After John took all the ammunition that he could carry, he shut the weapons box and then went to the side grates and began unloading a debatable guard wall. He lifted it up, folded it outwards, and propped it forward giving the shape of a sharp "U". He moved it into place right in front of the middle hatch of the Pelican and placed the machine gun on the center opening. Chief ran around the Pelican and grabbed the second one, and placed it next to the first one.

He was going to need as much cover as possible from what was going to happen. He didn't know what else these people were capable of, but he had a feeling he was about to find out firsthand.

Even though he wasn't dealing with the Covenant's plasma fire, the floods infectious touch, or bullets from insurrectionists, the abilities in this world were becoming more and more threatening the longer he stayed. They were becoming more dangerous and more surprising the longer it continued. It went from spewing fire like a dragon. Raising the grounds foundation in god-like beams. Making physical copies of themselves, and creating misty clouds with faces in them. He wished he had more information. He wished he had Cortana.

John had to find a way to counteract them or at least have a better understanding of what he was simply dealing with. The only help, he was assuming from at the moment, was that these people in this world had never seen a gun before. Which was alien to John. Guns had been around since the beginning of all modern warfare. Not having one of the most necessary tools was like not having a plan for a mission.

John looked over the area and saw several targets on his HUD and they begun flashing. He also took notice of a massive smoke cloud gathering in the distance, probably trying to fool his sights. He activated his thermal imaging enhancement scanner on his HUD, and saw 11 people coming his direction while staying bellow the grass. A few were in trees and some were using some type of illusion technique to turn invisible from Johns vision.

John activated and aimed the sound frequency to listen in on what they were saying within the bushes...and this is what he heard.

"_What the hell is that?"_ One voice called out.

"_It looks.. Like a man!" _Another one murmured through the infrared scope.

"_What the hell is that metal thing behind him? It looks almost like a bird...Made of metal." _A man said as he stepped closer through the brush. This made Chief clutch the guns tighter, making him anxious and anticipate a battle while he continued to listen in closely.

"_Could that be some sort of summons? If it is, where can I sign?" _John heard someone say "Summons" and didn't know what that meant. But he heard more and more speaking, until he began to hear mutters of attacking from the front, but attack from behind.

It was becoming a rather dangerous situation when you didn't know what your enemy was wielding. Since though they didn't have any types of firearms this would be easier. John had always planned out his attacks and strategies with formulated plans on what he would need.

If it was Unggoy a simple Magnum would suffice. They were nicknamed "Bullet sponges" after all.

If it was a Sangheili, and depending on the shield strength, a fully loaded assault rifle would get the job done.

If it was a Jackal a DMR could hit through the one opening on the side of the shield. That could work, and most of the time it did.

And hunters... They would need heavy firepower to blast into them and neutralize the colony of worms. A shotgun would rittle them, but a 'M6' Spartan laser would cook the worms inside.

But this wasn't an alien alliance with superior technology he was dealing with, these were chakra wielding humans with advanced skills in sneaking, assassinations, and espionage attacks that could rival hyper-lethal rankings. And he had no clue what they were capable of outside of that.

Soon more and more voices began appearing to the point a whole crowd was speaking. John began seeing the movement flutter once more all around. John became on high alert as he clicked the automatic boosters in link with his armor to at least lift up the Pelican to let go of all the excess clay on the under hull, and to lock it down. Inside and out. John began to slightly apply pressure to the trigger until he heard someone say.

"_If we can get this thing back to Kumo, do you think we can find out what it's capable of.. Or what it is?" _Someone asked with some serious curiosity.

"_Please, this thing looks nothing like a Shinobi... Or is it a Kunoichi?" _A feminine but cocky voice said. John wondered what she had meant by 'Shinobi'.

"_Maybe it's just an illusion." _Some brushed off.

"_I've already tried dispelling it, and it's real! KAI! KAI! " _Someone yelled out in frustration.

"_We need to think of a plan." _

"_I've already got one, we kill it."_

John watched as one man dressed in a brown outfit with a silver headband stepped out of the bushes. He had a calm pace with his walk but at the same time he was rigid. He looked full of authority and had little experience in wars with his stature. He had long brown hair tied and dark gray eyes that were bloodshot. He took a deep breath before bellowing. _"Name you alliance and title demon and you will be spared!"_

The man's translated voice roared as more and more men and women or Shinobi and Kunoichi as they were revealed now, stepped out from the dark places of the woods; surrounding the area's on all sides. Trying to cover as much ground a possible.

In John's mind, he knew what the enemy's intentions were, they were trying to pin him in and try to corner him. Easy for the taking. This would have worked on any fresh military recruit, but due to several mission engagements with human/covenant forces, he had leaned thousands of maneuvers the enemy could attack from. From what he could tell was that the Shinobi thought he was outmatched and outnumbered.

"_You are surrounded by some of the top Kumo shinobi in the Land of Hidden cloud. Escape is impossible... Now step forward and ff you turn yourself over, your death will be held for another day." _The man said as he slowly began walking toward the running river. John tightened his grip on the rifle, as he pointed it at the oncoming man who was inevitably going to strike first. The man showed no fear at the weapon since it was but fake and meaningless to him. Although he didn't let that deter his thinking.

_"Are you DEAF! Drop that staff NOW THIS INSTANT!" _The man was not letting up as he... began walking on the rushing water.

John had seen enough. These people were too dangerous and were non-negotiable. He leveled his sights and began to open fire

The man from "Kumo" had expected something peculiar to happen from the 'Staff' but called the armored man's bluff. He never felt the piercing blazing bullets enter his skull. Blowing chunks out. A few caught him in the chest. Whatever he was doing to keep him standing on the water faulted, and fell in.

John quickly re-aimed above as a group of shinobi jumped from the tops of the tree's casting silhouettes in the half moon sitting in the sky. Lines of wires came from their wrists that stabbed into the ground.

He was used to the target's flying. It was something that he wasn't accustomed to.

Other than the Yanme'es who were born and bred fliers, but they were bugs compared to humans and harder to hit.

More masked Shinobi sprinted over the water like torpedo's and began to close in on John, but were cut down in a matter of seconds. Three of them were down as they also fell in the water that now began to fill with blood. In the heat of the moment John saw more begin to appear from behind the Pelican.

He quickly turned and sprayed at the attackers trying to sneak up on him, hitting 4 of them in a volley of gunfire. He exited the cover since it had been compromised and devised to lure his attackers out into the open. On man dashed behind him at an alarming speed and slashed at John with a sword in vertical strike. John saw this and caught the sword with his gloved hand. The sword barely moved toward John, who spun his gun around like a bat, hitting the man in the cheek and snapping his neck in the process.

John saw two more shinobi appear from behind quite fast he spun around and began firing into them.

One tried to fall from above by leaping from the top of the tree but John rolled forward and bashed the stock of his weapon in the man's face smashing it in, before he was attacked from the left and the right simultaneously. One man on the left held a outstretched fist and another on the right who aimed a kick at John. The spartan moved his head out of the fists direction before punching the man who tried to kick him in the neck. The first man was grabbed by the shoulders and slammed into the ground making it quake.

The shinobi shook his head to keep the bile down in his stomach from the forming concussion, but felt his ribs and organs get crushed when the Master chief stomped on him.

John lifted his boot off of the dead shinobi before he rolled backwards to gain some ground, before blasting at a Kunoichi who ran at him.

2 of them were hit with several bullets but the third one managed to jump up and land on top of the pelican. He looked down at master chief who had turned his attention away before simulating a plan to take down the armored being...

John was nearly caught by surprise as 15 more kumo shinobi exited the forest, sprinting towards him like angry bees. John calculated how close they were before he unclipped and threw both frag grenades into the oncoming crowd of attackers.

The two grenades detonated simultaneously, causing fire to spread across the grass in a hysteria. Four shinobi were instantly blown away, dead from the intense heat and from the blast. Six of them were killed instantly. Three of the smart ones jumped away.

John dropped the now empty magazine drum before replacing his current weapon with the assault rifle which had better accuracy for mid-long range distance. He fired again into the distance, catching three more in as single sweep. John blinked when he though he heard a grunts scream run through his brain. After firing another shot he swore he spotted glowing blue blood.

Grunting, he had to constantly reassure his mind that he was fighting humans. Not covenant. He could somehow see images of the lowly Grunts firing at him, chanting while they did in their squeaky voices. The bird faced Jackals shooting in his direction with beam rifles zipping and zooming. Or Sangheili Zealots charging at him with Energy swords. Attempting to skewer him or slice his head down the middle through his spine.

They all ran through the grass with their heads charging forward, their swords curved behind them. The piercing two-pronged blade behind waiting to strike like a viper. John swore he was beginning to see this happen once too many. He could still smell the plasma burns and feel them while tasting warm blood in his mouth. He didn't know how to describe it but he was feeling the malice fury take over.

He kept firing into the forest wildly. Hitting more and more shinobi who dared to make an appearance through his sights. Bodies began to pile up on one another in the battlefeild, almost hitting seventy. The shots were flying in all directions, killing or injuring anything who got in his way. He shot on his left as his assault rifle ran dry in the magazine. The number on the top of his HUD ran to zero and his weapon stopped releasing bullets. Unloading the empty clip he slipped a full one in the slot, before pulling back the chamber to load a new bullet.

The warriors in masks began hiding behind rocks or tree's, trying to escape the wrath of the orange eyed armored man.

The Master Chief aimed and saw one man in the middle of the open area, but on his HUD it read nothing.

"WATER STYLE: GREAT WAVE OF DESTRUCTION!" Chief heard someone yell far away that seemed to echo. Everything grew suddenly quiet. John breathed heavily as the sides of his eyes burned before he heard the sound of water thrashing back and fourth. He turned to the river and saw all of the water in the running river stop going down the stream. THe sight before him bewildered him that it made him tilt his head and forget his earlier case of bloodlust. Water always ran downhill, no argument about that. But this river pointed down just stopped moving, completely. Like someone had retracted the gravity from pulling it.

It didn't stay like this for long as it began to collect more erratically. The master chief's finger on the trigger twitched as it all became a massive tidal wave, nearly 60 feet tall. The tower of liquid than begun to rush toward him. John's senses kicked in and told him to run.

John looked on both sides for some higher ground to escape the colossal water flow and thought of retreating into the forest. However, this action would cause him leave the Pelican, defenseless for any shinobi to grab his equipment or Nawaki for the taking. John looked to his left and noticed a tall but skinny rock ranging from 10-20 feet tall. He sprinted left passed the guard walls and onto some taller boulders close to him. He hoped to get to a high enough to escape the massive tidal wave for it could get into the Pelican's turbines and fry the engines.

The force of the wave was easily enough to knock him over, and could have easily let him flow away to who knows where. He kept sprinting forward through the mud, and leaped up to one of the rocks and aimed toward the right.

A sudden explosion rocked the boulder he stood on that nearly threw him off and in the water. The stone back and fourth with cracks now below him. John maintained his balance and saw a pair of shinobi running on the water. The river had filled even more, now filling the entire grassland before him.

The master chief fired at the left at an upcoming Shinobi, who jump up and tried to slap an explosive tag on him.

The explosive tag slowly dropped in the water as John kept firing at the Shinobi who kept the run going.

As they ran over the running water like rushing serpents, John didn't know how they did this. Anti-gravity shoes? An invisible line? Retractable energy?

He wasn't thinking of that. He was wondering how a simple handsign could turn the slow moving river into a rushing dangerous rapid torrent of water that covered the entire area like the ocean.

John heard something over his shoulder and saw the Pelican begin to shift uncontrollably in the mud from the water rushing. The water was beginning to move on it's own , and soon the Pelican started to float within the water before it's left wing was caught on a tree. As John watched the Pelican become free, he didn't see the one man stand up on the stone across from him and press his hands together.

Almost like his senses telling him to 'turn', he shifted his head and saw someone appear on his HUD from behind. John promptly turned to raised to raise his rifle, but felt something strike him in the back like a burning rod.

"LIGHTNING STYLE: MERCY KILLING!" Someone roared right next to John's ear. Like a cold spear throughout his system John felt his skin heat up to a boiling point. His blue HUD flickered red with static rolling across the screen as he lost all control in his movements. The rifle in his hands became heavier for some reason as his arm was weighed down. His eyes were seeing spots and he could smell something burning inside his helmet.

Chief fell back on the stone and faced upward towards the dark blue sky as he grunted loudly. His eyes were shut tighter than stone as he bit back a yell from feeling every microfiber in his entire body sizzle painfully. He tried moving his limbs but didn't have the strength to. The skin on his back felt like it was charred and the longer he layed there the worse it felt. Everything in his stomach churned uncontrollably to the point he felt sick. He felt tired but not terribly to even think of considering it. He began to breathe slowly and try to calibrate his thoughts. He felt like he was stabbed with molten lead.

His HUD blinked on a few seconds later as he tried to cool down and reassess the situation.

HUD: STATUS REPORT = REBOOTING SYSTEMS PROGRESS/ 17.78%SYSTEM ANALYSIS ACCOMPLISHED/ Time: 7.18 seconds

John patting on the ground around him. The steps sounds grew louder and soon he saw two Kumo shinobi look down at him anxiously. Their shadows cast over the downed man in armor and they felt the goosebumps on their skin subside.

John's HUD wasn't responding to their presence since it was still rebooting, and it let out a small buzzing sound in the back of his head. John simply looked up at them as his insides felt cold.

"_Did we get em?" _A young man asked looking down at the green giant with his metal staff next to him. It had killed almost all of their unit members, and had proven to be a real pain in the ass to evade. At first glance, he didn't know what the hell this was or what to make of it. From looking at the downed enemy, in all right and standards it looked just like a man in armor that looked very protective.

And very heavy.

He had tried to throw a shuriken and Kunai on the armored beast when he was on the boulder, but nothing broke through plating. Almost like it had seals on it that deflected any type of object. The young cautions shinobi, carefully reached down and picked up the strange metal plank and begun to feel it. He noted the metal on the tip was extremly hot, almost burning to a touch. He placed his gloved hand on the end and noticed there was a hole in the lower back end. Maybe a type of grip? The cool metal felt warm at the end, and he tried to hold it like the armored man did. Now all he had to do was try and replicate what he did.

John watched as the young man picked up his gun by the end and began examing it.

"_Yes we did...The lightning spreader worked with all the water around to conduct it. Now we can take him to Kumo and see what we can do with him. First though lets get the armor off" _ Another man said. He had never seen someone directly take shurikens before and shrug them off like nothing. He was also beginning to question if this was real or not. This man had killed his men. By simply pointing a metal piece at them and hearing a loud 'BANG", he killed thirteen units like they were nothing. The Kumo guardsmen noted the man moved quick, efficient, and shifted with many years of combat experience. Almost like a cold blooded killer.

It made him skittish to be around someone so big, and so deadly at the same time. At first he was expecting to take down a simple squadron of Gennin and bee done before the sun came up. Instead he loses half his forces to one man who never once used any ninjutsu techniques. Or whatever the hell it was.

What questioned him though was why was there this man in the most protected part of Kumo's border within this hour? He observed the armored being as he nudged the Master chief's foot to see if he was going to respond. Which he didn't. His eyes trailed down and saw his rifle's stock sticking out of the armored man's back. He felt one motive consume him. He wanted that weapon for his own. Whatever it was it had killed his men... And he needed it to avenge them.

In the meantime, Chief was feeling sick from the electrocution and looked at his armor's status report.

HUD: STATUS REPORT /REBOOTING SYSTEMS PROGRESS/ 92.99% SYSTEM ANALYSIS ACCOMPLISHED/ TIME: 0.5 seconds.

"_I don't think we should be touching these! Look what happened to hibiki-san!"_

"_He's dead." _The kumo guardsmen said while gesturing to the fallen solider beneath him. _"He's not breathing and I couldn't feel a pulse."_

"Alright... You had me worried for a second_. Now how does this work?"_

HUD: COMPLETE

John felt his fingers twitch and his back loosen tremendously.

"_I wonder what this does-" _

The older guardsmen for the Land of Hidden clouds never finished his sentence as he felt his left shin get in a death grip and shatter like glass. "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" The man's agonizing scream ran through the air like an alarm blaring. The younger chunnin looked down in shock and eyes full of surprise as he never saw the armored man move once. John quickly stood up while still clutching on the man's leg, exerting all the pent up frustration and pain he had been experiencing for days into his hostage.

The young Kumo shinobi suddenly found himself staring up into an orange visor while his teacher was still screaming and clutching his broken shin while hanging upside down.

The guard never felt such extreme pain in his life. He felt the urge to look down and saw the tibia from his shin had exited the skin and had shattered under the spartan's powerful crushing grip. The young chunnin shook his thinking, and managed to jump back as the Spartan reached for him and land back below the rock away from him.

John let go of the screaming man and grabbed his light machine gun from behind. He looked down at the shinobi who was clutching his broken shin and swore he saw the man crying. The shinobi who was going into shock from the pain or blood loss, looked up at the armored man and saw a black hole right infront of his eye. His mouth slowly opened in horror from seeing the weapon kill everyone around him just a few inches from his face. The metal on the tips was still very hot that his eye could feel it.

The master chief aimed his rifle to the shinobi's head, just a centimeter from his eye, and put him out of his misery.

The young chunnin felt his blood run cold as his squad leader's head exploded with blood flying and pieces of skull.

John looked back at the younger man and saw he was no older than 17 with the subtle hair on his chin. He had brown hair that was cut straight past his neck with black eyes and gray armor only covering his torso and arms. He had a pouch around his thigh with bandages and looked... Terrified. He was holding a rusty kunai and John could see sweat pouring off this boy's forehead. His eyes were wide and his hands were clenched around the handle to the point his knuckles cracked.

The master chief could also read the boys heart rate through that armor and they were off the charts right now. The boy simply stared at chief for a few more seconds with widened eyes before falling backwards in the large patch of watery grass and running off in the distance away from the armored demon into the brush.

Chief rolled his joints and stepped off the rock and back to the Pelican. John noticed his surroundings had softened, and on his HUD, he picked up more targets in the distance but soon he saw they were were falling back into retreat. John looked through his ammunition to see he had two more clips left for the light machine gun and four magazines for his assault rifle. Now that he learned one of the moves or abilities they wielded, he knew which one did have an effect on him.

While fire had zero effect, Earth had minimal effect depending on how well it was used against him, and water could be dangerous if the possibility of being flushed out to sea ever happened. Lightning was deadly.

John, feeling satisfiedm decided to not chase them down and cause any more bloodshed. There wasn't a reason to since he had a kid who needed to be taken to the medical wing, and after that he needed to figure out where Nawaki lived was so he could return him.

Looking to his right, John saw the water from the tidal wave not only raised the Pelican out of the mud, but it had washed away all of the excess weight of it, making it able to take off once again. The water that polluted the area had also sunk a bit in the mud. Granting him access.

John could somehow hear Cortana remind him of his luck at this moment.

John observed the area once again for any live shinobi, in case he could interrogate them and find out why there was all this fighting.

But not a single soul was in the area. Just him, and a litter of corpses still bleeding into the dirt.

Moving past his thoughts, John stepped toward the Pelican's back hatch to open it and stepped inside. He saw Nawaki still in the same seat looking exhausted.

He closed the Pelicans doors and activated the engines by turning a few knobs. As he turned on all of the switches inside and prepped for launch, he had to figure where he was headed. Obviously toward the Infinity. Wherever it was. He looked through the back view camera to see how Nawaki was doing, and saw him still asleep in the hanger looking rather pale. John should have put a blanket around the boy so he didn't freeze to death in his conditions. But he didn't have any around on the Pelican's back port and time was running out. John activated the Pelican's homing beacon to locate where the hell he was and how long it would take him.

...

...

...

HUD: TIME OF ARRIVAL: 2 hours...

John disapproved of that notion of time. Nawaki didn't have 2 hours. Now it was a race against time, but John was known to turn the impossible possible with luck. The Pelican's jests lifted it off of the ground, carrying large globs of mud under the hull. It's rear jets surged forward, making it shoot above the tree's that made them shift back like an arrow, and blasted off into the distance.

The Pelican grew smaller and smaller as it parted past the dark blue clouds beneath the stars.

And just like that it was gone.

XXXXXXX

Orochimaru stepped out of the forest that was nearly scorched with a broken arm and scratches and bruises around his face. He looked around and saw the sun was near it peak in the sky with several clouds. After nearly an eternity of fighting and killing he had broken away from the remaining Kumo forces and the mysterious fire that had started. Orochimaru was tired and suffering from Chakra exhaustion.

He also felt a great... Unsatisfying pleasure, to say in the least.

He knew this war came with only one answer. Death. That was the overall solution to bloodshed by nations disagreeing with one another to the fullest extent. It would only spur more and more conflict between one another, and within the distance apart would contain the foundations of dead bodies who fought for those who thought it was right

Dying for nothing.

That was the only thing war was based on in Orochimaru's mind, and that was the casualties.

After searching for an hour in the bushes, Orochimaru came to a conclusion that his subordinates were either killed or captured by Kumo forces. He had searched for his two other members of his genin team Chika and Jiro, but found out how right he was with his earlier expectation.

Chika was ofund with a slit throat while wrapped to a tree after what seemed he was executed in a brutal fashion. Jiro was found in a Kumo supply camp with hundreds of senbon needles in his back. Orochimaru saw the needles were coated in powerful nerve poison and a single drop was enough to kill 21 men. Jiro was hit approximately 213 times, killing him thousands upon thousands of times over. While two of his genin were worth nothing considering they were both raised with citizen families. One of them was a definite prize in the eyes of Kumo and everywhere else around the globe.

The grandson of the first Hokage.

Even Orochimaru would pay for something like that to be his. The last of a bloodline.

He needed to think of his next objective, other than leaving for Kumo since search parties would be there any minute. Thinking of where else he could look for any clues, he thought of using a snake summons to locate any signs of Nawaki within the area. But the only possibly scrap of Nawaki he could locate was his necklace. The first Hokage's necklace for that matter. He had found it on the ground where he last saw him getting tackled by some green blur.

Orochimaru felt as if he was given childs play for students. These boys were nothing more than wealthy citizens who lied their way through school to get the best teachers and become something more within the village. He never truly understood why human's would never take Ninjutsu seriously and adapt to learning something. Until then, no one would earn his respect. The only people who could at least get a fraction of dignity in this world was Hiruzen Sarutobi... And the Uchiha clan's famed Dojutsu.

Orochimaru however stopped his banter when he came across...

A Massacre... A Bloody area...

Bodies littered the large area with small entrance wounds. He saw no living people, or even hear a sound except for a few fires from the burnt tree's that had begun mysteriously earlier. Orochimaru walked over to one of the fallen Kumo members and turned him over, and saw another hole in his head. He looked around and saw more and more men slumped on the ground sunken in the mud mixed with blood. Orochimaru noted that _he_ never did this...

Did Konoha send any forces after them?

And if they did, where were they..

*Crack*

Orochimaru's very sensitive ears picked up a sound with the distance among the tree's and made him face that way...

The young Kumo shinobi who had survived the earlier conflict passed out from the intense shock of seeing his sensei be killed by the armored giant. All he remembered was falling against a tree after feeling the strongest urge of quizness and loss of balance. He woke up with the taste of Iron in his mouth and a massive headache. His hair was coated with sweat and he had no idea how long he was out for, but looking toward the sky, he felt it wasn't that long.

He was freezing and had a few scratches, but other than that he was fine. Minus his sanity that was on the brink of breaking any moment.

All he needed to do was-

"_**GENJUTSU: SERPENT BINDING!"**_

The young Kumo shinobi didn't know what happened, but all he felt was cold and smooth ropes wrap around his body. It caught him by surprise as he yelled out in fear. He didn't fall as he was kept firmly in place on the ground. He looked down to see what was constricting him... And saw that it wasn't ropes at all.

It was snakes.

Two..

Very large...

Snakes...

He shook in fear as the serpents faces came very close to his own, hissing and bearing there very long fangs. The sun's beams were being blocked by the tree's branches above, but the young kumo shinobi could see one of the snakes eye was bright yellow, and the second one was a dark green.

They were heavy, and they were crushing his already injured arms. He tried to move his hands and dispel the genjutsu but couldn't mold his chakra together from the great fear running through his mind. He then found himself upside down as he was levitated from the ground. The snakes end tails wrapped above in the tree's branches and the man saw the ground become smaller and smaller.

Then upon the tree trunk came a white man with long black hair.

The man with yellow eyes and purple lines. A creepy grin worked his way to his face as he looked at what he caught. Orochimaru had taken a soldier pill to regenerate a small portion of his chakra and saw the young man gasping like a fish from the lack of oxygen going to his lungs. He could also deduce the boy's arms were close to breaking from the odd way they were being bent and the half strength of the snakes. The young man didn't recognize who the man was since he was still trying to register what was going on...

"You are far from home little boy." Orochimaru said while licking the roof of his mouth.

The young man was shaking.

"What is your name?" Orochimaru asked.

"Shin-Shinji Yotsuki..." The young man said fearfully as he began to recognize the man in front of him.

Orochimaru then began a long discussion with the young man who wanted oh so desperately to live..

If the young member of the Yotsuki clan had lived to tell the tale that day, and not be disemboweled by Orochimaru- then he would have heard of the day and told of his survival. But alas, he did not live to tell about the day of the _"_Orenjiaido Akuma_"_ who made his appearance in Kumogakure and the forest near the border.

Which had gained the new name as _"The bloody leaves" _from the massacre that happened there that dark night.

It is now a a fabled cursed forest with the souls of the Kumo shinobi...

* * *

**TO BE CONTINUED...**

**AUTHORS NOTE: I have to say I was glad I got passed this chapter. Anyway you know the drill, leave a review or follow/favorite. Lastly I will never argue with a flamer... Because if I do, they will bring me to their level of stupidity and beat me with experience...**

**-SHIPWRECK5897**


	6. Inevitable Choices

**DISCLAIMER/ I don't own Halo or Naruto**

* * *

_"You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them."_

-Maya Angelou

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Chapter 6: Inevitable Choices

* * *

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU COULDN'T FIND ANY TRACE OF HIM!" Tsunade screamed as she clutched Nawaki's necklace with her voice cracking slightly. She was saoked from the outside rain and was shaking from both the cold and rage.

Orochimaru had returned to Konoha injured and exhausted. Also lacking any of his subordinates from the mission in Kumo. He was taken in by ANBU and treated by numerous medics from the attack and told of what happened through a written report.

While the council had taken the report to verify it to the hokage, they were in slight disbelief from the report. A reported _"Summons without a contract had eliminated a quarter of the strike team me and my students were sent out to kill" c_onfused them to no end. They wanted an explanation of the subject but had to deal with grieving parents first.

The parents of the two student were in great despair and quite angry with Orochimaru for not protecting them and requested their bodies for a proper burial. Aside from that they also demanded to see him and get an explanation of the matter. But were denied by Danzo Shimura along with the Hokage until further notice. Greatly angering them to no end.

But the one in the most shock was none other than Nawaki's sister.

Tsunade Senju's heart rate was nearly through the roof from the news she had just heard.

Nawaki was no where to be found. Almost like he had vanished entirely.

Her eyes were wide and the color had left from her face when Orochimaru had told her. If it hadn't been for Jiraiya who was using every ounce of strength to hold the endowed teen back, Orochimaru would have been dead a thousand times over. Some of the comments he had made greatly angered the already distraught Tsunade.

"SETTLE DOWN HIME!" Jiraiya seethed and was struggling at keeping Tsunade from ripping a new one for Orochimaru while also making sure his hands didn't go below her waist or above. He could very well lose them if he tried anything perverted toward his blond teammate. But in this moment now, pervertedness would only create more trouble for the grieving medic-nin.

Tsunade knew something was wrong when she was lead by Jiraiya on his serious side. Which was rare. She knew something was very wrong when he didn't ask her on a date or even look at her. She knew something was SERIOUSLY wrong when she saw Orochimaru was inside a morgue.

The place smelled of death and every known chemical. It was very cold inside as there were only a few lights illuminating the darkened room. The entire inside of the morgue was made of wood and the basement where the cremation oven and observation tables for the corpses were made of cold stainless metal. Tsunade herself didn't give a damn what the morgue looked like, however, she was in those moments of excessive anxiety attacks where could memorize every detail of the area and most importantly, by it's unhealthy smell.

Orochimaru was sitting in a wooden chair outside with his left arm in a cast and a tired look upon his face. He had just specifically told the news of Nawaki being stated as missing during the mission in Kumo. He didn't know what else to say other that he wasn't in the mood for any type of displeasing drama. Which he had said something else, and now was becoming the target of Tsunade.

He had told her cooly "We are at war Tsunade... That is the price for blood... That is lives." Orochimaru said as a smirk graced his pale lips. "You must know that by now."

If Tsunade was mad before her rage was now at it's boiling point since her face had contorted to a new shade of red. She screamed at the top of her lungs and escaped out of Jiraiya's grasp and ran at Orochimaru. She had full intnet of shattering every bone in his body until someone voice ripped through the air.

"TSUNADE!"

Tsunade stopped as she turned around to face the silhouette of her sensei and Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi. His hands were behind his back and his hat was off. His face held seriousness and was not in the mood for any drama. The bodies were continuing to pile up and no one was winning this war... Only losing more and more shinobi to send out, but being replaced at a faster point and being told of those shinobi being marked as missing.

"I DON'T CARE SENSEI-

"Tsunade, as your Hokage I order you to leave the premises and report to my office." He roared, not having patience to deal with this.

Tsunade stopped all banter after she heard her sensei yell at her. He never yelled at her like that.

"Dismissed." Hiruzen ordered, making Tsunade's throat clench as tears welled up in her hazel eyes. Her mind felt cold as her insides tighten up. Her fists balled up until she felt her fingernails pierce her hands. She rushed out past him crying softly with her blond hair whipping back and forth into the night.

Jiraiya looked at Orochimaru giving him a glare that said he would not have any of that, before he rushed out for Tsunade hoping to at least calm her down. Hiruzen looked at his ANBU escort and ordered. "Shut the doors and leave us." The ANBU unit nodded alarmingly, before complying to his words.

The two stood in the room standing staring at each other in complete silence...Until.

"Your withholding important information Orochimaru. That can be trailed as treason." Hiruzen deduced correctly to his student Orochimaru had been his favorite, but the only part he truly disliked about him was his ruthlessness. It had been decreasing in the years, but Hiruzen blamed the death of Orochimaru's parents to be a main factor to it. Jiraiya had the same issue, being a war orphan himself but his mind was never as cruel as Orochimaru's. Yet he was never as gifted as.

"What gave it away?" Orochimaru stirred after wiping his mouth.

"Considering you have not filled out the part of the report where you killed the son of the head of the Yotsuki clan, that was the only part left out along with the conversation. Now as your Hokage, I need to know all that happens with the shinobi of the hidden leaf. And what that boy said to you before you executed him." Hiruzen said as he clears his mind to take in every detail of information.

"We'll where should I begin?" Orochimaru wheezed out as he adjusted his cast. He was being interrogated by his own sensei, and was feeling uncomfortable at the moment...

"From the beginning..." Hiruzen finished as he narrowed his eyes at his student.

"Aside from my two subordinates being tragically killed, nothing more on that matter..." Orochimaru started as he sat up replaying the memory of what the young shinobi had told him. Hiruzen meanwhile couldn't help but be disgusted by his pupils total lack of humanity and brushed it off for that matter."From what he had told me was something of a armored demon with an orange eye." Orochimaru began the conversation with his teacher, gaining a query look from the aging kage.

And thus, the conversation between the two continued and Master chiefs presence was becoming noticed within the world of Shinobi wielders...

And it would soon turn in one direction...

XXXXXXX

Months later...

It was past dawn in the middle of the ocean, just a few miles from the land known as Kirigakure. The sun's bright excruciating rays beat against the metal on the Infinity as it sat in the ocean, getting beat against the current. The massive war ship looked different as both pieces of the ship that had been split in half but had now been moderately connected with other pieces of the metal hull.

The underside of the ship was covered in small patches of barnacles that seemed to be increasing into the thousands, and the metal was showing slight corrosion of rust. The air was around 63 degrees and the ocean air was fresh with a blistering scent of salt.

The clouds in the sky were partially there but not very thick. In the distance however, they were collected in massive clumps surrounding the small nation like white on rice. The Infinity on the inside was clean and all of its lights were on. The engine that wasn't under water was on powering the generator, and everything seemed very silent.

Inside the captains bridge though...

John sat against the main decks chair within the dark bridge of the massive computer room in his armor, trying to get at least a moment of sleep. He shifted uncomfortably on the reinforced chair as the peeking sun's rays touched his pale face. He crossed his arms and looked down, trying to obscure the light that was keeping him awake. His arms came a few inches off of his chest due to the armor but he didn't mind since he had worn the armor for almost a decade. It felt unorthodox to be without it.

It had been 2 months since that day in the land known simply as "Kumogakure" which translated to the "Land hidden in the Clouds." Many of the nations John had attempted to scan over looked like countries, but he didn't have much information concerning that topic. John hadn't been getting much sleep recently with the new "guest" on board needing 24 hour watch. Although there were many other things keeping him awake. From the reoccurring night terrors to the feeling of being watched in the empty vessel, there really wasn't a single moment of solace.

His guest, Nawaki Senju had pulled through tremendously in the health department. Yet he had not woken up since the accident. Nawaki had proven to be a strong and resilient boy who was clinging to whatever life he had left.

John had to sympathize with him because not only did it seem right to take him in, but it seemed it had to be done. He had taken notes of the boy's contents and discovered tags and papers within the boys pouch. John found Nawaki's I.D. card which was written in Japanese, to some of his medical history on the back. This boggled his mind. Why would a 12 year old boy need such a thing? It was almost like he was expected to be injured.

From what John learned, the boys name was definitely Nawaki. Surname was Senju. Weighed 82 pounds. Born on August 8. Was 4'3" feet, and had only one living relative, a sister. His current rank was "Genin." This put him at a stump. John had never heard of such a term or a rank for a child in that matter. John was young to have a rank in the military but he was an exception. Nawaki's ninja resignation number was 005350, and was one of the current heads of the "Senju clan." Now John was becoming more and more confused with these trivial words. He knew that the Sangheili had clans since Thel had told him of his, but the only clans used in human civilization were once long ago. Almost a a couple thousand years in fact.

All John could deduce from this, was that Nawaki was a ninja. The card had all of his medical history, he was carrying weapons, wore mesh gear, and had some expirence in fighting. The medical history card was helpful in many way's to John since he needed to know Nawaki's blood type and what type of medicines were unhealthy for him so he didn't accidentally make him sick. Then John had to figure out where Nawaki was stationed at. Which was a village called "Konoha no Sato." John didn't have the slightest idea where Konoha was on this planet... So he would have to investigate that later on into the week.

Earlier when John had arrived on the Infinity he nearly bashed the doors open to the medical center and get Nawaki prepared to the machines for life support. John had never used any of the serious advanced medical technology onboard, or anywhere else in that matter except for the biofoam , it they had proven to be self sufficient in all cases and quite simple to use.

Currently, Nawaki's infection around his arms, legs, or torso never began after John had removed all of the shrapnel. He also cleaned many of the grievous wounds he sustained. Nawaki had a small fracture on the side of his skull from John bashing into him as well.

Also he had managed to salvage what nerve he could in Nawaki's legs and replace much of the damaged bone with thin metal plates that the skin would grow over. The strangest thing of all was that his cells on his legs seemed to have been multiplying quickly. John looked through the boy's blood and saw nothing remotely out of the question. Or detected any anomalies. All he could find out was that Nawaki loved to eat a lot of sugar. Candy that is.

Nawaki's near stumped hand had been re-attached after John had melded the nerve back to the hands current dead one and stitched everything. In fact, it was the nerve that held it attached while it was swaying back and forth while they were trying to escape from the ninja's. It was lucky that the hand had never been detached while the scuffle was happening, otherwise he would have lost it for sure. Nawaki had pulled through. He had made a mental promise to himself that he himself, would save the boy when he knocked him away from the bombs blast..

And when he made a promise he would keep it until his very last breath.

But within the last week John had been thinking of his visit with Hamura. The near omnipotent being who reminded him of the child of prophecy and his supposed immortality. John thought maybe Nawaki was the child of prophecy since there was continuous mentions of a child, and out of nowhere he's given responsibility of one. Then again dreams could happen more than once with changes. Hamura and Hagoromo could have been the same person for all he knew...

But right now that didn't matter. Right now John was in a war with himself and his sanity of choices. The war had taken it's toll on John's mind as he remembered the yells of pain from the man he killed, and the look in that woman's eyes when he killed her in the dark forest... It was nerve racking to keep seeing and hearing these things when you were trying to sleep but in the end didn't get any. Or the feeling of something following you.

Since he couldn't get much sleep, John had been teaching himself how to speak Japanese. Since his armor came with a translator within the helmet he was good in receiving information, but giving it or trying to replicate it was a different story altogether.

After about 4 days of taking care of Nawaki and not having many hours of sleep, John had been staying up, going through languages tutor on one of the computers within the ship's personal library. John had nearly been up for 147 hours reading, re-typing, and summing up words as best he could. Whenever he would miss a word he was administered a small shock in his armor. The pain was apparently good to help learn and also kept him awake.

But to John, all he felt was a flick to his skin.

Within a span of one month, John had learned over 140,000 thousand words and managed to speak in partially full sentences. His grasp on the language was acceptable, but not that great.

John growled as he rubbed his darkened crusty eyes and looked beyond the sea through the glass portion of the main window. Darkened bags hung under his eyes and his lips were chapped. He didn't know whether to leave his sanctuary of the only reminder of his universe but he felt constricted to it. Now and then when he was making his daily rounds in the massive armory he thought he would see Cortana walking though the weapon section. He would stare at her for a split second before she would vanish almost instantaneously. It made no sense to him for seeing things.

But he believed as if she was connected to the Infinity as well... John had been in the armory to recount any missing or his overall ammunition, weapons,to make sure he had enough to last him. The Infinity had around 17 individual armories with hundreds of cases holding thousands of rounds for different weapons. Altogether, he had enough ammo for a medium sized state. It had numerous gun stations to reconstruct his weapons or repair them if they should ever be damaged. Good thing he was a weapon specialist and knew the in's and outs of each and every weapon in the UNSC. After he had searched through one armory he found a vault.

He searched through one of the documents concerning what the vault was holding, and found out it housed hundreds and hundreds of... Forerunner weapons. Hundreds if not thousands of them lined the wall. It had seemed they had been confiscated off Requiem once the knights were dealt with after John had cleared a path for the marines toward the Didact. The Promethean weapons were locked down tight with a heavy access vault and a password was needed. Failure after 3 attempts resulted in the Promethean weapons to be destroyed in a rigged explosion. This might have been the smartest defensive measure from the engineers due to the fact the forerunner weapons being extremely dangerous on many levels. They were meant to do one thing and one thing only. To erase all organisms.

John determined that the Promethean weapons would have to wait until he gathered more clues. He didn't exactly need them at the moment and had hundreds of other weapons to use at his disposal. Considering the Promethean weapons were meant for containment of the flood and they weren't at all needed at the moment. Bullets were beneficial as is.

But that was not all, John had discovered not only Promethean weapons within a vault in the armory but thousands of Covenant weapons. Needler rifles, Plasma rifles, Type23-Spikers, Beam rifles, energy swords, Spike grenades, sticky grenades, concussion rifles, active camouflage, it was all there. Locked and loaded. He even found an entire small section in the armory for a dozen gravity hammers that once belonged to Brute Chieftans. Apparently O.N.I. had kept a few secrets from John as well. He didn't know if it was a secret or not and truly didn't care... But when it concerned plasma weapons that was a different story.

Now John had been most accustomed with UNSC weapons most of his life, but in most cases he had no choice but to use plasma weaponry only if absolutely necessary. He loathed using them however. They were the weapons that had killed billions of innocent lives and destroyed countless planets. A weapon was a weapon and they had saved his life on multiple occasions. When looking at them, John could still feel the burning sensation on his skin from where the plasma fire had struck him in the past. He could smell John was easily able to get in through the vault by reassessing the code over and over again until the vault ultimately failed.

Not to mention the thousands upon thousands of armor pieces that could be reconstructed to different customs from Spartan 2,3,4 armor sets. Although John had no idea how to repair them or even construct them, he had around 23 MJOLNIR power armor suits models beside hundreds of custom armor just had to learn a way to repair these thing if it should ever happen...

Which could and would happen unpredictably in the coming weeks. John was used to engineers prescribing him the latest armor fits and not to mention latest models. But John only had learned to remove and put on his armor by manually screwing all the bolts in after countless sleepless nights. He counted all the bolts that he had screwed in one night alone... And it went on to 361 individual screws...

John groaned as his gloved hand wiped over his face to hopefully make him stay awake. Sleeping was becoming more of a downside to seeing light, because when you're tired all you want to see is darkness. Nothing else... Period. John tried sleeping in the beds and living quarters but felt unrelaxed in those blankets and soft mattresses. He breathed in as he stood up, and grabbed his helmet that sat beside him and left the bridge through the sliding metal doors. In his hands wrapped tightly to a small chain was Cortana's former chip.

XXXXXXX

John sat at one of the hundreds of cold steel benches lined in the massive mess hall. He was having simple MRE meal that consited of eggs and rice . The warm creamy substance was good as it went down his throat but not really filling and satisfying. John had maintained a regular diet of a few thousand calories a day since his exercises burned up those calories within hours due to the enhancements. Once in a while though, John enjoyed the small meal. He had never been a exquisite when it came to food since there was only a few minutes to eat, but was thankful he had any food to begin with.

During missions he would have a few minutes to down something before covenant troops would attack their base camp. Or sometimes he wouldn't eat for days. The longest he went without food was 4 years when he was on the forward unto dawn. He was thankful for the massive refrigeration unit held enough food for up to 5 years but since he was only the one inboard and not 17,151 crew members on it had been boosted to over 22 years. Freshwater was no problem either, when the ship had crashed into the ocean the massive drains regulated on the lower left portion converted sea-water into fresh water by purifying thousands of gallons a day.

John wiped his lips with a paper napkin before looking back at Cortana's chip that sat next to him on the table. He had found it in his previous armor that was damaged by the Didact in his side pack, and had kept it on him at all times when he found it. Looking back at the stainless empty chip of his former partner, he felt entitled to the feeling of it in his helmet.

It felt right to keep it there and he wouldn't feel alone at all times without it. He didn't know why he wanted to keep it. To him it was all he had left to Cortana other than her memory.

John picked it up and sat it in his utility compartment on his thigh. Taking his helmet and his plate, he put the dish in rolling machine behind the counter of the kitchen. He placed the dish in the massive washer before activating it making the machine begin it's rinse cycle and leaving.

John now began walking to Nawaki's in the medical wing section as he exited the hallway and began walking towards the far right side of the ship.

He passed along cracked windows and numerous empty computers. Everything electrical inboard was running and some of the computers were showing blank navigation's of nothing since there weren't any radio frequency towers in sync.

He continued the long paced walk until it finally paid off as he arrived at the medical glass sliding doors reading "OSMOTIC" in bright blue letters. He looked through the front windows that entered the lobby. All of a sudden he stopped at the door before pulling his magnum off his thigh and pointing it at the desk threatningly. His hand shook like a leaf and a bead of sweat slithered down his head.

He _thought _saw Fred sitting there behind the main desk in his dark blue armor looking at John. He sat there with a very chilling smile. It drove John to point his magnum at the image. John tried to cease all of his motion when he saw he was currently staring at a potted plant. John groaned as he holstered his gun before walking past the sliding glass doors and walking down the bright pure white hallway.

Seeing people in the corner of his eye was happening more than often and was beginning to take a toll at his sanity. Sleeping had become increasingly difficult as the days went on. Walking on the ship made him see people. It began to really happen 3 weeks ago when it became a daily nuisance.

John walked passed a few abstract paintings and doors with keypads lit up in green, before making another turn into the bright hall. He remembered where he put Nawaki since his injuries were quite severe to the point of being dead. He was placed in the ICU which was another section stationed off from anything except John.

John made it passed the regular doors before going passed another pair of doors after opening them. He entered the final hallway before he opened the very last door. He twisted the handle and opened it. He was met with the smell of disinfectants scent in the air and a sight of Nawaki wrapped almost like a mummy from the excess burns which were 100% healed. The side of his head had to be shaved to repair the fracture in his skull.

John put his helmet down and walked over to unwrap Nawaki's face. Nawaki had a few band aids here and there that showed a couple of scars that peeked underneath them. Some were hidden very well while there was a big one above his left eyebrow. That would be the remainder of his mission that he was almost killed on. When John had slammed into him a crack, but small one appeared on his skull. John had performed a small incision above his eyes and used "Bone-Glue" on him to patch it. He was thankful that there wasn't any brain damage found.

He had been cleaned from scratches, dirt, sweat, ash, and the bruises were nearly gone from special creams applied. Curretny, Nawaki had a tube connected to his mouth giving him fresh air. His vitals were stable and he was currently in a medically induced. John picked up the small thermometer before calmly walked over to Nawaki's side and pressed the it up to the side if his head.

After 3 seconds the cool metal retracted and read "98.6" on John's TAC/PAD. John placed it on the table next to the bed connected to the brain scanner. He reached for a glass writing pad and began writing down Nawaki's status after the past 61 days. John looked over the previous notes he had written on his TAC/PAD and saw that it had been days since Nawaki was declared healthy. Yet he hadn't woken up.

John clicked the pad off before checking the boy's brain activity on a remote scanner. The large white steel machine sat on the left of Nawaki's bed, beeping and visualizing his brain waves activity. Nawaki was currently in the "blue" zone which meant he was safe. There were currently 5 colors on the health spectrum. Blue meant there wasn't any problem or any anomalies, yellow meant there were some slight discomfort, orange meant he was in pain, red meant he was in unbearable pain, and gray meant there was no activity at all. Which meant he was clinically brain dead.

John looked at the boy a minute longer before having a thought. If Nawaki hadn't been saved by him. What could have been the outcome, and what was the outcome of more before him or after?

Was this planet really that instant of winning a war by sending inexperienced children to their demise? Now while this claim made the UNSC sound like a hypocrite since they did the same thing, the UNSC gave the children excessive training, along with augmentations to the Spartans. This kid fell for one of the oldest tricks in the books. And that was caused by rash decision making and impatience.

Nawaki had literally run off into battle without even looking where he was going. That was the biggest mistake you could do in any battle. Not only would it get you in a body bag faster but anyone close to you as well. Although maybe that was a test given to him by his teacher, Oro something. Orchie? Orocim? John couldn't remember the name since it happened so fast but the sensei had deliberately sent his student out to die.

Cruel, Yes.

A good reminder to all future gennin, definitely.

While John was good at the whole fact of reality, his standards didn't go as low to killing his own men. His own drill instructor Franklin Mendez would have personally dealt with the traitor himself at the thought of it. His instructors gave very harsh punishments and grueling exercises, but never once did they take a life of their own men. they each taught them to value human life and gave one simple rule, Mendez did especially. The one simple piece of advice that would pull through every obstacle.

Was that, "_You don't win until your team wins."_ Mendez's authoritative voice range through John's mind like an unstoppable echo. That question though was up to debate in John's mind now, whether Mendez was currently living in the onslaught universe with the Didact rampant, or had died previous to it, he may never know.

John had been going mad with these inquiries revolving certain people within his life. He had lost the last of his friends when blue team were exterminated. He had thought of Catherine Halsey since she was his mother like figure within his life, Franklin Mendez who had put faith into him and his recruitment during the training and had been there for them every step of the way... Until he pushed them.

John had followed his famous quotes ever since he was on the training boot camp on Reach. It was nostalgic as it was gratifying in John's thoughts. All he could sum up from his past experiences was that he was grateful to have the teachers he had, and was thankful to have fought with some of the bravest people he would have ever known. While the Human race barely survived the onslaught with the Covenant and barely made it through the attack of the composer on New Phoenix, they remained strong even when times seemed darkest...

But in this world. It lacked... It lacked...

John felt himself staring into the window of the hospital room where pure white blinds hooked onto the cold steel walls. This world lacked many necessities to what it properly took to being deceptive. The shinobi in this world were powerful, as they were cunning with illusions and mind tricks. But John had the ace up his sleeve within the entire fight. That was experience from decades of struggle, and year of losses that have hardened him. John heard a shutter and looked over at the sleeping form of Nawaki as his machine kept him active with the continuous "Beeps" and beside the IV attached to his left arm. He took off his helmet and looked out the window toward the ocean rhythmic beats against the current that went on for miles upon miles.

"_You know how to pick them John."_

John spun around to where the familiar voice was but looked around the metal room to see no one. It caught him off guard and nearly spooked him because that voice was something his past had been all over. He looked toward the ceiling to see if anything out of the ordinary was there but saw nothing, and then gained an idea back at the window. He walked over to it's clear form and checked again, yet nothing but the oceans rough current. He kept in a slow pace backwards to see anyone or anything but saw no one... John's mind was trying to process what he was seeing or thinking was just maybe a fluke.

_"Over here cowboy." _A sultry voice cooed in the corner.

The voice nearly made John clutch his heart. It's aching and throbbing pain struck every nerve within Johns insides after hearing something that was all too familiar. Hearing her voice made his skin crawl and his mouth become increasingly dry with anticipation. Was it real?

He quickly turned toward the left to where the voice was emitting from in the large room and found himself looking in a glass mirror... Only it wasn't his reflection he caught himself looking at. It was the glowing luminescent being from his past that had created it all...

Cortana.

"Cortana." John's dry voice broke through as he stood frozen looking into Cortana's piercing vibrant eyes. Like a ghost John nearly choked when Cortana's hand reached out of the mirror for him and lightly on his armored chest. He was now really starting to question whether or not this was all some dream...She stepped out of the mirror and looked up at him with a smile. Her eyes blinked and she softly rested her head on his chest plate while muttering. _"You wanted me John... and here I am." _She whispered loud enough John could hear.

John could feel his face twitching by the curve of his mouth...

But he remained vigilant. He didn't know how to react to this. He had a small feeling he wanted to push her off and find out what was going on... But it had been so long since he had heard her voice that he was caught in its captivating symphony... John kept staring in front of him while seeing the outline glow of Cortana's blue hair in his vision before he said.

"What should I do?" John said to the being. This wasn't Cortana, he knew that much. But just once he would hear what she would say. Referring to his overall mission now... He had no way home, which was established earlier and would continue to play it over and over again. Cortana didn't look up and John ony stood still waiting for an answer... What seemed like an eternity John summed up enough energy to repeat himself.

"John." Her near angelic voice was truly captivating. Seeing and hearing her again was to die for.

"Yes." John repeated to himself from his mind and out his mouth.

"Home... Has to wait." The aspiration told him making his brows furrow.

"Cortana... What does" John was cut off.

"Until you keep your promise." She said as she looked up at him. John didn't understand what she meant until she looked back at Nawaki resting in bed breathing slowly but heavily. "You didn't keep your promise yet... Not until he's safe." The way she said it rocked John to his core. Hearing her voice again was painful as it was blissful to him. Nawaki looked like he was in pain as he was strapped to those machines. John wish he didn't want to see him like this again. It was frankly the second most painful thing for John to muster, and that was seeing civilians injured. Which was odd to John. Having this feeling once again.

Again...

Wait...

Was she suggesting that he-

John looked down to ask her what she had meant but saw no one there. Not even a speck of dust. His face contorted to a deep frown as he picked up his helmet and looked back at the boy sleeping. John's chest felt as if it were hollow and quickly deepening as Cortana's words played over in his head like a scratched record. He looked back into the mirror and saw his own reflection. His eyes were dark and his cheeks were nearly sunken in. His face showed a five o'clock shadow as he had not shaved in the last 3 days. He stared at it a little bit longer before leaving the medic wing. Leaving Nawaki in the bed as he slept peacefully.

But as he slept his left index finger twitched slightly underneath the white bed sheet, and his eyes fluttered a little but remained calm.

XXXXXXX

Inside the massive armory were rows of steel cages housing some of the only guns on the entire planet. Inside were numerous benches for the firearms. There was an armor fitting station with numerous rows of armor selections.

Every wall was lined with guns and grenades. There was armory was locked down that when John had tried to open it, he found out the "security" resulted in getting electrocuted. John however found the access key on the metal floor beside a pile of dust which could have more than likely been the armory runner. John gained access to the UNSC standard weapons and under side docking systems full of Covenant weapons.

After 2 hours of rethinking strategies for almost a perpetuity of time and almost an hour of reloading some weapons, John had formulated a plan. He was lacking information or a visual of this world, and the only way he was going to get it was by leaving.

Before all of this he was the leader of BLUE-TEAM, probably one of the most leading and successful sub-unit's formed by the UNSC. He had made difficult choices in the past to save thousands but costed him his friends.

That being Samuel-034 in the Chi Ceti system after he sacrificed himself to blow up a covenant cruiser. Then there was the death of John's close ally Kurt-051 on the planet of Onyx. But to every choice he made came a compromise. John knew the facts that remained. He was in the middle of a dispute between nations and foreign affairs with many people dying in the process. He didn't know how the war started but he didn't really care. not to mention he didn't have an idea where to access that type of information when you were in the middle of a war.

John had also been in the launching bay making small repairs to many of the vehicles and making tune ups. He had also planned to dismantle the frigates in order to add them to the Infinity or possibly make them up again since they were nearly underwater in the lower section of the Infinity. So unless John could somehow lift up a 300 ton frigate out of the water, it wasn't moving anywhere anytime soon. He could possibly dismantle it. But he would need more hands to work with in order to accomplish that.

John walked out of the armory and into the launching bay and placed another weapon inside the side compartment of UNSC Exoatmospheric-Multi Role Strike fighter. After his last few missions with flying the Pelican he was going to be using something that gained more than enough speed. John had barely made it to save Nawaki's life in just the Pelican, but he needed something fast in case he was caught in something he wouldn't know how to handle.

Reality had not been making very much sense as of lately and he was beginning to become very paranoid of the outcome of not being ready to face something worth being dangerous. Although the lightning attack on him nearly killed him. When he had removed his armor, the lightning had scorched a direct line up his back and on the back of his head. Creating an ugly new scar...He was lucky the lightning had not short circuited his armor completely or paralyzed him.

He had to become more wary of what was going to come...

For example, if he had not taken the Didact seriously until he tried everything in his power to kill him; then he would have been dead the very first second he met him... Everything John had thrown at him either bounced off or just chipped a little of his pride away... It was a futile in almost every way. He was a entirely invulnerable..But that plan would had to wait. The Didact's upcoming demise in the future would have to wait. John enjoyed patience as much as he disliked mathematics when he was a child. But there was simply nothing he could do at the moment.

He was making a direct illegal action against O.N.I regulations which could have gotten him court martialed and more than likely prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. But since the UNSC had a statute of limitations in one universe...

John would have to ignore their orders... Just once...

At first he had wanted nothing to do with foreign affairs since he had no interest in meddling with business that wasn't his. Also it was forbidden strictly by UNSC and ONI to do such things without legal authorization of the admiral. Not to mention there was a 3 day waiting period, had to be signed off by the directing member of the Office of Naval Intelligence. But if he pulled through with this and if information ever leaked back to his home he would probably have committed the second biggest crime in his career... Becoming AWOL.

He had made a promise to Cortana... The real one that is during their final tall at the destruction of the composer, is that he would protect her... But in order to protect her now he had to protect himself in sake of her memory. But how would he protect himself by jumping face first into a war?

In clouded mind, he was determined of at least getting some minimal information concerning the war. He didn't know where he would find any, but the closest are to the Infinity was that very misty town he arrived to months before when he first engaged the men and women using water "Ninjutsu" after re-reading the articles, he had learned of different elemental Jutsu's... Which was the same thing he had read on weeks prior. He needed to know what grounds the nations stood for the war and what positions of the war were in. A map of the world would be needed as well...

John thought after his one and only appearance in the town he needed to find someone within control and try to negotiate to terms for information... But negotiating was not one of his strongest suites. His tactical approach was surveillance, leading teams, defending, charging, and deploying bombs... Not negotiating... The only time he had ever negotiated or at least speak to the enemy is when he was captured by Howard Graves who lead the insurrectionists as it's General numerous years before his death by Kurt. It would be a difficult and complex mission... Which was trying to avoid an attack from a nation.

John clicked his mind when he was thinking of his course of action and remembered that he needed to go in a different direction by taking off...

The Exoatmospheric Multi Role Strike fighter had to be launched by going to a connecting dock since it didn't take off like an ordinary Pelican. John walked toward the elevator on the far side of the launching bay carrying a shotgun. As he was reloading it slowly, the elevator quickly lowered him until it got to the lower deck...

Which was partially filled with saltwater. The entire lower deck of the launching had been partially damaged as the hull bent and rocked some of the jets, but not too severely. The light above came on with a hum and the water was present more than 50 feet below the launching line. He however saw the Jet he was looking for still on the launching pad with the exit going upward, out of the water. John loaded another slug into the slot of the M45 Tactical Shotgun and pumped the fore-end as he walked on the catwalk toward the jet.

He placed the weapon in the black compartment before closing the side lid, and locking it. He checked his forearm readings and saw that Nawaki was still asleep inside the medical room with his breathing and heart reading sterilized. John switched off the camera before entering the Jet and closing the airtight glass windshield. He pressed the few necessary buttons on the right side and prepped for launch as the buttons in front lit up. The Jet's engine began to roar and shot forward through the exit bay down the long narrow path.

John braced himself as the Jet made an upward loop and shot outside like a bullet to a handgun. The engines kicked started before the jet hit super speed. John switched on normal speed before the Jet slowed down significantly and rose slowly above the clouds. John looked over the side and saw the two pieces of the warship down below... John then took the same route he did before months prior with a turn of the throttle and a boost of the engines.

XXXXXXX

The misty land hundreds of feet below had not changed at all since John's memory. John lowered midway toward the ground but kept the jet within the clouds to make sure no one took notice of him. He flipped the sound dimmer and let the engines become almost noiseless from 50 feet. The land still looked wet and damp down below.. aside from the countless bodies on the ground seen from the radar sound scanner. John himself couldn't see much, but the scanners on the Jet could see all within a 3 mile radius and some captured most of the activity happening 3 kilometers toward the east.

Meaning he would have to avoid an all out situation with the Shinobi and kunoichi. John prepped for a drop as he loaded two M7 caseless/Submachine guns on his thighs, and made sure to set the Jet on auto/pilot. The black gun-box from the outside could also be accessed from the inside and revealed 5 different weapons from his choosing by re-opening it inside the cockpit. John chose a standard assault rifle, two multi-purpose frag grenades and opened the back compartment to the main part to his safety landing...

A Jet pack.

John wasn't going to risk landing in the mud and sinking again like last time, his weapons both needed cleaning and needed to be dismantled to get any residue of pebbles out of the barrel. John prepared for a drop as he snapped the Jet pack onto his armor which applied more weight to him adding another 250 pounds. He looked over where he was landing before he saw a city like outline coming up fast on the radar. John didn't want to land miles away and he didn't want to land directly on top of the foreign city and get mistaken as hostile. Plus, he didn't want to leave Nawaki unattended by himself on the Infinity.

Seeing that he was over his designated drop zone, John quickly pressed the lower hatch button making him feel weightless before free falling hundreds of feet above the ground. John heard the wind whip outside his armor and heard it whizzing outside at nearly a hundred mph. He saw the strike fighter ascend into the clouds. One of of his training routines counted dropping from the atmosphere, and it wouldn't be the last time he did it. Around 30 feet the rockets on John's back shot out slowing his fall significantly. He slowed down before he steadied the packs boosters fully, eliciting the roar of the rockets. John moderately landed in the soft rocky hill with his boots an inch deep and looked down at the ground.

He breathed quietly before looking up and listened for any sign of the strike fighter...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

_"Good."_ John thought as he began jogging forward toward the cliffs edge. He looked behind him to see he was on a tall hill that went directly to the ocean behind him. He turned forward to see the outline of the village...

He needed to enter stealthily, and the strike fighter was surprisingly quite at a certain height above the ground. Making it easier to go in unnoticeable... He began walking for before thinking over...It was smart that he had made sure not to overuse the speed which would have alerted the... Massive town?

John slowed his speed and blinked his blue eyes behind his visor as he stepped over to the very edge of the cliff; gazing upon the village. From what he could make out out of the mist that was partially clear was it was massive... This was truly the first time he had seen the village for the first time and not just an assortment of houses. Trees and bogs lined the outer area and massive buildings with rock structures surrounded them covered in trees on the very top. But when John took a better look he saw that were buildings. In the distance past the mist he could see tall mountains creating shadows. There what looked like small shops or homes lined the corners of the tall structures... John also payed mind that there were no citizens roaming the streets, and it was very quiet minus the sound in the great distance. He took glimpse of a large building was in the very center of the village with a symbol was on the very top of it.

John also noticed some of the buildings had crumbled down... No scratch that, it was in ruins. Some of the shops were smashed, structures had giant dents in them from being hit by something. Not to mention John could see some shiny but bizarre slime covering the buildings. But there was an odd trail that ran deep within the ground of the forests with smashed trees and looked like it became liquefied... Almost as if someone had poured acid all over these areas...

It seemed whenever John entered some type of village, city, town there would be some type of destruction was sure to follow there...

John equipped his weapon after taking in enough supervision and looked down at how far the drop was. It was around 23 foot drop and saw it wasn't that steep. He jumped off it before sliding down the rocky hill hill and entered the heavy brush. John observed his surrounding for cover and noticed there was an abundance of sturdy tree's, thick shrubbery around the small area.

The shrubbery he was in connected to the outside of the village and what connected to the ocean. He took cover behind a tree before peeking past it to take a glance into the desolate town. John saw no readings within his scanners distance and took a few cautious steps forward. He held his rifle steady and his breathing low. John then saw a red blue on his scanner before he ducked down when he saw a few shinobi popped into distance beside him in a puff of smoke. John was only a few feet away when he dropped behind a shrub keeping his assault rifle steady. John didn't know exactly how they did that since his scanner would catch them, but they had nearly outran the scanner. But due to his careful scanning eyes he could see them as they had quickly moved across his scanner like a blur...

_"Super-speed?" _John thought of. Until one of the shinobi said out loud.

"There..." The man wheezed out as cold sweat dripped down his chin. He had blue hair in braided strands with a lower mouth mask covering his face and the standard shinobi outfit. It was fitted with a dark gray under suit with a headband, a gray flak jacket, sandals, and a white sash around his neck . "I think we lost it." One of them said with black hair as he was panting and sporting a few scratches around his face. He leaned against the tree John was next to and slid down. He gripped his forearm and began massaging it.

"I think I broke my damn arm." He said as his hand pressed against his forearm and it began to glow a green. He wheezed for a minute as his hand on the broken side. John looked in slight interest at the odd glowing effect. "Any ideas now, because I'm still trying to figure out how a tailed beast got in through the defense. Where were the guards?"

"Probably incapcitated." One of the men brushed off. "This will be fun."

"The five tails should never be taken lightly, we were lucky to get away." Another one said with gray hair making John listen in to their conversation with heavy interest. Tailed beast? What did that mean? A weapon of some sorts? What on earth were these men discussing...

"Until we recover with 2nd division we won't be able to make dent in that thing."

"All we can do now is figure out a counter attack of some sorts or fallback." One of the shinobi said making the other one look at him in bewilderment.

"Did you not just hear me Goro? The five tails just wiped out a fraction of the Hōzuki clan by dissolving them, and you want to go back there!?" A older man yelled making John interested in the heated discussion between the two.

"What do we do then! Tell me that! What do we do?" The man now identified as Goro yelled back with anger in his voice

"We run!" He pointed to the distance."There's no hope left until we re-group to seal it or lead it outside the village!" John listened to the livid man.

"And what about Ame's forces? We can't just let them escape-

The older shinobi rudely cut him off. "And do what against almost 200 Ame forces? Just run out in the open?"

Goro looked at him for a minute until the other man said out loud. "We should split up-

"No."

"Hayate this isn't about regrouping anymore. It's about saving the most lives before our own."

"Neither is getting us killed by the three-tails Noboru..." Hayate trailed off as he could hear some booms in the distance. The booms began a low rumble as it grew louder and louder. John could hear its loud roar from where he was sitting and grew increasingly anxious... It didn't sound like any machinery he had worked with... But had something that reminded John of the rimal animals on Reach. The Gúta, that what they were called. Nearly 20 feet tall with massive tusks to tear people in half with. While relatively dangerous, the Gúta in John's opinion were very effortlessly to kill. A single shot with a sniper rifle would have been able to take a full one down...

They were all wiped out after Reach was glassed...

Did this planet have something similar to those animals on Reach?

While the idea could be left open minded, John had to listen to what the men were saying.

"If we split up, we might have a small chance of covering more ground if the three tails catches up."

"We need to do something quick, I think I hear it!" Goro loudly exclaimed before Hayate punched him hard in the stomach...Hard. Chief continued to detect massive sound readings within the distance giving off enough noise to rival a Pelican taking off. John thought maybe this world had some sort of technology.. Like a vehicle or something moving. It had to be the only description to all the massive trails around the forests, and buildings devastation. The slime however was a different story, John didn't know what was the explanation to what caused that...

"Be... Quiet..." Hayate warned threateningly as they both felt the ground begin to shake. Goro clutched his stomach as he tried to halt his fit of coughing and wheezing. Noboru jumped in the branch of a tree and looked into the city with a grave look... Hayate reached for something in his pack and unrolled a very long iron cable. He wrapped the a foot of it around his wrist before throwing the other half into the distance. "Goro, head over to the toward the end near the library there," he pointed behind Goro toward the partially destroyed library outside the brush within the village. "and take a right toward the underground sewer system. You do know where that is don't you?" Goro nodded in agreement.

"Good. Me and Noboru will head toward the south."

"What about you against splitting up?"

"We have no choice, the six tails is almost upon us." Hayate finished as he shushuned away, then Noboru began sprinting along the top of the trees, and Goro walked passed by chief without noticing him and kept his back facing him. While John remained completely still he had a bit of an idea. He stepped up as he quietly clipped the assault rifle and unsheathed his knife...

In the blink of an eye, John grabbed Goro in a choke hold with one arm wrapped around his neck, and held the knife close to his throat. Goro's heart rate quickened significantly as he felt cold amor press against the bottom of his face, the back of his head bumped on something hard, and something very sharp into his neck. His first thought was is that he was captured by Ame shinobi and he was going to be killed..

His hands wrapped around the arms choking him tried to pry it off. But the metal arm didn't move a single inch and his thoughts were flashing before his very eyes.. Goro knew he would die in battle... But he didn't think so soon. He looked down slightly to see the man's arm was quite massive... And held green armor?

John quickly began remembering what words he could speak before summing up what he learned. "You... quiet..." He said slowly, making sure he felt Goro agree. "Tell me where am." Again, it wasn't easy to memorize the entire Japanese language within a few week period. His knowledge on interrogation was not blunt at all. He had been given excessive torture techniques training when being taught by several psychological warfare instructors during his training days. He had been taught thousands of techniques.. But had only used two in the past during an interrogation with insurrectionists. The main idea for pain and suffering was to push someone beyond their breaking point without pushing them too far. Someone past their breaking point would land them to a shattered mind and John would not be getting anything. However, since something was arriving very soon... He had have to make this quick.

"What nation are you for?" Goro asked quietly. He had never seen Ame shinobi wear armor this thick before.

"I'm the one asking... Now where am I?" John used a different tone in his voice. Very calm and straightforward... But very quite to a point of him whispering. Making his gravely voice seem like the voice of a death...

"Kirigakure... Village of the Hidden mist." Goro questioned as his left hand slowly reached toward John's wrist to see if he could make him drop the knife. In the wrist are seven small individual bones, that if pressed in the right places could make the hand follow the attackers whim. John however saw this and pressed the knife harder onto Goro's neck. Goro's hand stopped slightly as he felt his skin begin to strain. "Don't... Do that." John said slowly as he remembered what the lessons had taught him and the language. Goro's neck and arms tensed as he tried to formulate another plan. John could read his heartrate seem to fluctuate whenever he tried something, so the very moment it sped up he would know the Kiri shinobi was up to something.

"What were you running from?" John asked as he looked into the village and the massive devastation from what he could not explain. It couldn't have been a bomb, or troops, and vehicles were out of the question.

Goro didn't answer..

John sheathed his knife in the shoulder holster and grabbed the man by both of his arms with his back still facing him. He began to pull his arms apart to a certain point of snapping the man's clavicle. Goro groaned as he felt muscles begin to separate and wondered how strong this man was. Eventually, Goro answered. "It was the six tailed slug, it came here as an attack from Amegakure." Goro said as his face began turning red from suppressing the urge to scream out in pain as he felt the man's massive hands crush his wrists and feel his shoulders about to snap. John didn't know what a six tails was and felt like he didn't need to ask since one was on its way very shortly.

"Who leads Kirigakure?" John needed to know who was in charge of this village so he could possibly find information... The reason why he was conducting this torture was to gain information, and so this shinobi wouldn't attack John.

"Its the Sandaime mizukage ..But he's not here...uggghhhh..." Goro groaned as he became weak in the knees from the pain. Chief saw that he was lying by his heart rate speeding up again. He turned him around and got a first view of the the master chief. Lets just say Goro was not expecting to be looking at a faceless orange visor, attached to a man completely made out of metal. "What in kami's name." Goro was never in his life expecting to see this. A man wrapped head to toe in very thick and heavy looking armor. His stature was almost like a giant... Or possibly a golem. The only warrior who would wear such armor were the samurai in the distant Land of Iron under their generals rule. Goro felt his breath hitch when John stood fully up and said. "Don't lie... It won't help." Goro shook his head. "I'm not lying." He said quickly, not giving the armored being any eye contact.

_Wrong answer._

Master chief gripped the man by the neck and held him off the ground making him choke as his windpipe was cut off. Goro struggled to formulate a plan as he felt his feet not touching the ground anymore and tried to clear his mind. "Where is he?" John said as he dug his fingers into the man's throat making small bruises to form. The Kiri shinobi said nothing but began to smirk. But before John could do anything the man yelled out. **"FIRE STYLE: DRAGON BREATH!" **Goro's chest puffed out directly before he spat a stream of flame into Johns face. Goro continued and continued to pour chakra into the Jutsu to make the man let go and possibly hinder the grip on his neck... But after a couple seconds, just a few seconds, a massive gloved hand pressed up against Goro's mouth.

Goro's entire face contorted to pain and he screamed silently in agony as the flames were still lit in his mouth and burned the inside. His cheeks began to melt away showing his teeth beginning to fall out of his gums, and his tongue began to shrivel up to nothing. Master chiefs helmet was completely fine from the flame... slightly burned but nothing serious. He looked at the man trying to grasp to any life he had as his esophagus began closing up from the burns... John then didn't the only sensible thing he could do.

**CRUNCH!**

The shinobi's head fell to the side as John released the pressure to his neck after breaking it with a bit of pressure. His entire mouth and a good portion of his jaw began to melt away from the flames he attempted to attack chief with. Since his entire mouth melted, Chief wasn't going to be getting any information from him. He had a plethora of other techniques he could have used to get what he had wanted, but that stunt sealed Goro's fate. Chief reminded himself that he forgot to check on the man's hands since that's how they completed these Jutsu's, with an assortment of hand signs.. He reprimanded himself that this man could have done something hazardous. He had to always make sure to secure their hands when dealing with a Shinobi. He was lucky though it wasn't a lightning or earth jutsu since that could have involuntarily given away his position.

John looked behind him to see the flames had passed through him and lit some of the tree's on fire and burned the wet grass below him. And when there was fire there was smoke, and smoke brought a lot of attention.

He either needed to leave the area quickly and hope no search teams would come for looking for one of them, or hope another smoke cloud was in the sky as well. But in Chief's mind it clicked when he remembered through the misty atmosphere it would cover all the smokes trail... So he was safe in that department.

John dropped the shinobi like a sack of potatoes as he fell back hitting the tree, before sliding to the right side slumped... John looked to into the street's of the village and saw the library. The library's entire right potion looked like it had been blasted on the outside which left an enormous hole to the inside. The roof was fine and the few steps into it had some brick pieces from the wall. It was a small looking building with a large window which looked fine. He looked on both sides before stepping over the corpse and beginning to sneak into the street's. He stepped out of the brush and down a steep dirt hill onto the stone road ,walking slowly with his assault rifle trained forward to any surprises... before hearing something down the road to his left...

It sounded like a sound squishing sound next to the sound of sizzling. On his HUD scanner a massive life form could be seen, it was wide and large. John could see various shapes and shadows in the distance but couldn't see through the thick mist.

The odd outline was round with two spheres from his vision... And quite tall. His curiosity was getting the better of him from the weird figure, but he decided to avert his attention to the library,that was filled with numerous information that could benefit to his search. Maps, logs, reports, anything would work. He needed anything that could be used to gain a lead to the wars, and locations of villages so he wouldn't be walking blind...

_It was only a few yards away... while the __thing__ was just down the road._

Chief didn't know what it was...

And he didn't want to find out. Something about it... Made him feel weary.

Ever so carefully and quietly ... John quickly walked forward to the front of the library making sure to not let his metal footsteps not cause any noise. It was short journey before he went up to the hole on the side of the library. He stepped over the 4 foot ledge and over the pile of rubble before he finally set foot inside the dark bookstore. John observed around the countless books and noted he was currently in the kids section.

The colors of the books and drawings on the floor gave that characteristic away. He walked briskly forward noting the library was dark on the inside and the lights weren't working. John activated his night-vision accessory on his helmet.

He looked on both sides before finally seeing the inside. It was small, with only a few individual shelves containing volumes of books that ranged from, cooking, shinobi art scrolls to once about gardening. John looked on one shelf and found a book on summons. He didn't know what summons where but kept that in mind for later on. A few books had fallen on the carpeted floor, but from John's vision they were only about clothing, to cooking.

He stepped on one book that was quite thick. He turned it over and looked at it's title. Something about the warring nations and some man named Madara Uchiha who fought a man named Hashirama Senju using some fox demon.

But from the look of it, it was probably some fairy tail... meaning it had no relevance to him now or never.

_Oh how wrong he was..._

Some of the books read about biographies concerning someone named Mifune, general of the land of Iron, to a book entirely about a group known as Jashinist worshipers...

They were leading him nowhere.

John continued to walk forward and began looking for anything relevant to something he needed to locate. His first objective was to find out where Nawaki belonged and how he could get him there.. He couldn't keep him on the ship forever and would more than likely wonder where his home was... Plus, his village of "Konoha" would probably want him back. But looking over at what had happened earlier the village might think he was already dead...

Better now than never.

John looked over the section of the books and heard a massive noise outside that made the building shake...

_It__... was outside the building..._

If John wasn't surprised before... He was astonished by the speed of this things pace. John looked through the shattered window and saw... What looked like a puffy slimy pure white wall moving beside the partially demolished building. He didn't know what on earth he was looking at but continued to stare at it as the great white wall of white slime moved forward. This caused the building to shake slightly as the shelves began to fall over. He dropped down to avoid direct contact with the thing outside. He looked to the outside on his HUD and saw the thing was going toward the end of the road on his scanner. John did not know what on earth he was looking at but decided to not walk outside the door, or hole. He however felt he landed on something before looking down and pulling out a book...

**_"THE ELEMENTAL NATIONS/ GEOGRAPHICAL FACTS AND HISTORY"_**

John felt his mind light up and his questions finally answered at the sight of this hardback book cover. This book no matter how small it is or how dim it was gave him a slight hope to what needed to be answered. John slowly stood up and looked outside to hear nothing out of the slightest... But when he looked on his scanner...

**_PSSSSSSSSSTTTTTTTTSPLOSHHHHS...SPPPLLLOOOSSSHHHHH!...HIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS_**

Chief looked to his right to find out what that noise was and saw half the building was melting...

That's right... It was Melting like ice left in the sun for too long.

This caught him completely off guard as he saw the white wall outside the window...

The wood, bricks, glass, metal nails were melting under some purple liquid. Being completely dissolved in a matter of seconds. The liquefying continued to grow over the walls of the shop and spread until the roof of the shop was beginning to be eaten by the purple slime. John took a few steps back to avoid the fallout of the slime toward his left and knocked a bookshelf over in the process. He looked behind him to see the massive white gooey wall standing outside that went up past the ceiling. The light from the outside lit up the inside of the library and went over chiefs frame. The ceiling continued to dissolve away chipping every bit of plaster and began to show the upper portions of the slimy being awaiting outside... until it was fully revealed...

To be a nearly 100 foot tall white slimy slug... With two massive eyes stalks and a slimy interior mouth stared at him, sloshing back and fourth. A long trail of slime like saliva coating behind him from where he had come from, and six fat looking tails swished behind. John cursed in his mind for lingering too long... This thing... Or slug was bound to find him...

He was gigantic... Taller than _M510 Siegework/Ultra-Heavy Mobile Anti-Aircraft Weapons Platform_... This made John feel he would need some heavy firepower to go up against something this large...

But there was only one way to find out if this thing was friend or foe..

Chief looked up with his rifle trained on it and said only one thing

"What in the-

Then the giant white slug expectorated a giant blob of purple acid at John...

And that is when John learned of the Six tailed beast...Was not friendly...

* * *

**Revised: 6-8-15**

**TO BE CONTINUED...**

**AUTHORS NOTE: Happy black ****Friday**


	7. Never blink

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Halor or Naruto**

* * *

"_He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster . . . when you gaze long into the abyss . . . the abyss also gazes into you."_

**-Friedrich Nietzsche**

* * *

Chapter 7: Never Blink...

* * *

Rhythmic beats slapped across the stone cold road, echoing in the village could be heard within Kirigakure for a few seconds in the distance... Until Master chief appeared out of the mist as he ran across the barren rocky road; took a hard left with his assault rifle, still smoking from the barrel. John stopped as he was in between two building made of brick and took cover and carefully looked outside in the street. His HUD didn't read anything for a few seconds...and saw nothing was following him after a few more.

This was a new experience John was going through for the first time in his military career, being hunted down by a colossal slug that spat acid like a fire hose. He had never played the runner, he would fight. He was never one to retreat because if he had the result would have lead to the covenant victory and humanities extinction. His flight or fight response could only register whenever he was only in an absolute life or death situation... But he knew when he was in danger of dying...

Because honestly the truth to him about death... Was that it was inexplicable to him on all accounts.

To HIM... No one else.

He had made it this long to see anything happen.

He began to assess where to go next for the time being for strategic measures against that thing that was following him. He didn't know how long he would be able to stay hidden from it since it had followed his every move for almost 12 blocks.

He slowly stood up while looking behind him for a few seconds before he began to trudge carefully forward in the alley, and also becoming increasingly vexed for allowing his two caseless sub-machine guns becoming liquefied by the six tails's power. When it had attacked him at the library all of a sudden, he had to take evasive maneuvers through the store to avoid being squashed. He was able to abandon being in the line of sight and used what he had on him to hit the slug as many times as possible. That being the sub-machine guns with their extreme fire rate.

This however only proved to be a bad idea since the guns had zero effect on the beast as it caused it to only become increasingly agitated. Not to mention the bullets sunk into the skin but seemed to be absorbed. When the slug had enough it sprayed at John with the eating acidic liquid that splashed his guns and the tip of his boot.

His boot was nearly eaten through but the shields were able to hold it off momentarily... His guns however were missing the front ends and only had the handles with the stock...

They were unprofitable now.

For a few feet he quietly listened to his surroundings as he trekked through the narrow alleyway, and taking in any quick movements until...

...

...

...

...

...

**!CRASH!**

... He began hearing squishy movements from behind next to the sound of crushing walls and falling stones against the pavement. He didn't have to look behind but he knew he was being chased down.

He began to run forward again and attempt to avoid being caught by what is supposedly called the six tails. That was aiming to kill him for some primal reason. It could have been possibly due to the fact that he could have been it's territory and he was trespassing... But all the Master chief knew, was that the six tails was not going to be giving up anytime soon

The six tails... Was a giant slug. Chief never would have known this would be said to him on any day. He would have thought the term beast or tails was an acronym for a weapon of some sorts, building, or some type of religion. But never an actual animal though. The monster, or living thing was possibly the biggest thing... Living thing John had ever seen.

It was probably around as tall as the Pillar of Autumn from John's memory, though it could have been shorter by a couple hundred feet. This made Chief rethink of this world for holding these type of animals. He didn't quite see the wildlife other than birds in the forests, and plain fish in the ocean. He didn't know if these tailed beasts were native to this world... Or if they were something else entirely that roamed the planet.

Now in most cases, John would have opted for a vacate the premises ASAP since he had obtained something on what he had needed regarding on information. Even though the knowledge he had found was a small library book on geography of the planet, it was better than anything he originally had acquired in the long run by himself without Cortana.. Or technology being accessible. But the plans had once again changed due to minor setback... That minor setback concerning a slug being over 600ft with acid glands and an unknown number of Shinobi forces within and outside the village making John weary of his sense of direction. If he wasn't vigilant of where he was advancing from, he could accidentally alert the entire nation of his presence and place his entire objective in jeopardy.

Yep.

Just another day in Kirigakure.

In a matter of seconds, the massive blob like being smashed it's way through buildings across the road like it was a stack of blocks, towering above them. It let its eyestalks scan over to Master chief and let out a loud distinctive moan that echoed throughout the streets. It saw the small green man ahead and surprisingly, slid across the road to catch up quickly. Master chief looked behind to see the speeding slug right behind him as he burst through both buildings, turning them into an avalanche of building in a matter of seconds.

The Master chief unclipped his assault rifle and aimed high and at the same time running backwards, and popped several rounds into the squishy animal chasing him down. The bullets disappeared in the massive blob belly of his, and John had to dive to the right side as the massive slug sped forward quicker than he could imagine, and he rolled out of the alley in the nick of time and went into a kneeling defensive position. He aimed his assault rifle at the slug and took two shots at it's round bulbous head.

The charging slug shrugged off the bullets and had to make him knocked into him making him fly onto the road. John screeched to a halt and saw his armor dimmer a little bit from the force of the strike. He sat up started spraying lead at the six tails until his weapon went dry. He quickly reloaded another clip into the slot and aimed at the slug who stood 40 feet across from him. The slug let out another distinctive yet incoherent moan and huffed its chest out... and spat out a barrage of bubbles at John, making him jump back in surprise from the attack choice.

Unfortunately, one of the bubbles hit John's rifle. He looked down in question and attempt to rub it off... But this proved futile as it grew over it in a second, then bubble immediately popped out of existence along with his rifle. Leaving John unarmed.

He stood up as soon as it began stomping towards him and began running down the road as hard as he could as the Six tails quickly followed behind. John sprinted for a few seconds before making a hard turn and seeing he was headed towards the docks near the water. He kept his pace steady as he speedily unclipped a grenade from his belt and tossed it behind. He jumped forward near a ditch that lead toward the water and landed several feet below in the shallow part of the murky water... and he waited a for few seconds until..

**BOOOOOM!**

The inevitable explosion occurred and shook the ground along with John as he could feel the small shock from the blast.

Hopefully it caught the monster off guard in it's blast radius and tore it to large pieces . A few rocks and pebbles flew over chief and hit the water creating rifts in the waves that went off endlessly. He was up to his knees in the mud as it slimed its way down his knees and checked his weapons while checking his HUD scanner on the lower corner. But, he saw no readings within the 25 meter radius. He was shocked that thing had dissolved his rifle within a bubble in a blink of an eye... John had nearly been caught in that bubble... If he had let it absorb him he would have shared the same fate.

John grunted as he heaved one of his legs out of the thick mud and did so with the other. There was nothing else he could do now other than-

**SWWWOOOOOSSSSHHHHHSSSSPLLLASSSSSSHHHHHH!**

John didn't know what happened in those few seconds of being in knee deep in the water... Other than being overwhelmed by a massive tidal wave from the water that caused him to jump back in shock, or maybe the time it took to all play out. The murky saltwater sploshing All John could see outside his visor was sea water beating against it and thrashing back and forth making it impossible to make out with the naked eye.

John tried to compose himself and his actions from the current and looked at his scanner and saw a massive blimp with him in it's radius. John jumped up out of the water high enough and saw the six tails was only a few feet away from him. John tried to grapple himself over the rocky wall and onto the pier...

However, the giant slug rushed forward like lightning and engulfed chief in its gooey jaws making him thrash around in retaliation. In a fit of trying to escape the clutches of the slimy prison when john had tried to climb up the stone wall behind him, but was enveloped in the slugs mouth and thrashed around like a rag doll.. John couldn't see or hear anything except the sound of sloshing back and forth and some light outside from his back-view shadow. Everything else was pure white and dark from the inside. He attempted to grab onto anything and free himself, but couldn't grab onto anything except the feeling of what could be described as compressed air since it was slime and he was wearing his armor gloves. His heart rate picked up and though for a second he was being devoured by the flood but he reminded himself it was a giant slug...

It wasn't comforting though.

Almost like a slingshot, John was let go out of the Six tails grasp and flew almost a hundred feet and began trying to activate his Jet pack... But strangely he received no response.. The world around him was moving too quick for him to respond to anything until he felt his body crash through a brick wall.

But due to his weight it made the sturdy wall make it as if he was going through cardboard. He hit the floor and skidded across it. However after a few feet his chest armor which stuck out tore into the soft wooden floor, cutting cleanly through.

John layed face down as a sense of vertigo overtook from the spinning and he tried to calm his insides down. He cleared his mind and thought of what he was after... What he was after... He also took notice his armor was at 15% shielding power capacity from the loud warning beeping. After his toss, he probably didn't hear it from the sound of bricks being smashed and wood being scraped into. That last impact nearly got him... He needed to avoid physical contact with this thing or else it was all over.

When he composed his internal problems as his armors readings became stabilized from the shock, he slowly pushed himself off the floor and saw that he left an imprint in the floor. He shook his head lightly, and quickly snapped his head around to the side of the hole he flew through and looked around; to see where he was. From the looks of the inside he was in a place of cooking. Vegetables were in bowls on a counter and of all kinds, dishes piled in a sink with brown greenish leftover food stains, a plethora of kitchen appliances littered the entire countertop within the kitchen. It appeared to be a house with a simple living space with a counter, a couple tables, pictures on the wall ranging from different people, and what looked like a glass dome containing food inside it that lined up against the wall that was filled with pastries.

He assumed he landed in some type of shop within the district. He was lucky he now had some cover and time to redirect a counter strategy...

**"WUUUUUU AAAAAHHHHHHHHHH..."**

...But it looks like he would have to run since that came from a very close distance.

He saw his jet and tried to reactivate his boosters by pressing the button, but heard the engine on his back let out a "POP" before hearing a low rumbling. He turned his head toward his back and growled when he saw his Jetpack began to smoke from the engine. He saw the slime from the six tails had coated the thrusters, making it inoperable for use. He assessed the slime became entangled within the thruster lighting spark and had made it unable to light the fuel. If he had about an hour and 43 minutes he could empty and clean it thoroughly...

But from the look of his scanners motion detector he didn't have a minute to spare at all

John quickly felt a rumbling from behind and had to bolt toward the back of it as he saw the six tails life force appear from behind. The monster burst through the buildings foundation and roared a low bubbly rumble and began to try and crush him inside the home too.

He quickly dashed through the back kitchen passing a sink and counter before spotting the only exit within the building... A wooden door. Seeing that it was wooden based and wood doors in common sense were thin enough, John sprinted toward it then crashed through the it. Leading toward a yard filled with a simple garden. John kneeled down reached down checked his thigh holster as he was charging through the yard filled with grass and saw he had only a Magnum.

He looked up to see the six tails over the house behind a tree and gurgle deep within its throat. He got up and jumped over a fence to put as much distance between himself and took a sharp turn. The slug slammed one of it's massive tails on top of the house then the ground nearly crushing John but causing an uproar of noises ranging from crushing metal, to glass becoming obliterated from the raging force.

Master chief rocketed down a street, not looking back once and keeping his face directly primed to the beginning of the road. Shops were passing by him like a blur as he nearly pass half a Kilometer in 32 seconds flat. His feet were almost like lightning as they barely touched the ground to send h springing forward. He swung to the left of another alley as a massive tendril courtesy of the six tails swung down, nearly squashing him. John then had to jump up as high as he could when he was nearly grabbed by the six tails again in its mouth.

John flew upward as he gripped the lower part roof of a small building with his left glove hand. He could hear the sound of rocks being obliterated on his left. Thinking quickly, he pushed himself off the buildings wall as hard as he could and jumped backwards in a full backflip onto the other building. He rolled onto his back and saw the six tails

About to ash into him when he spun to the left again and began a free fall off of the structure. John lande near the docks while the six tails began to shake. John took out his magnum and aimed it at the six tails who kept shaking like a lead in the wind.

Out of the flesh of the slug came a purple gas evaporating through nearly microscopic pores. The purple fog traveled in all directions in a thick dense gas. John shifted backward with his pistol raised and tried to think of another escape route. When the fog nearly touched him, his HUD scanned it.

_**WARNING: HAZARDOUS COMPOUND DETECTED.**_

John let the gas pass over him since his armor came with its own personal air tank and was airtight from missions into space, and being deployed into deep sea missions...

It didn't excuse the slug as it tried to charge John again like a raging train. He stuck his magnum back onto his thigh as the Magnetic Weapon Holder Strips connected to the magnum and held it down hard by the powerful magnets. John had to continue sprinting as the six tails chased speedily behind, trying to devour the master chief like prey. Johns lungs kept his breathing at a slow pace even when he was sprinting that could make an Olympic runner gasping like a fish. His heart rate was also at a steady pace minus the fact his entire body was moving like the speed of a bullet.

John moved forward through a foggy shopping district where fish was standing out on top of crates on the right side in shops, while on the left side in chiefs vision was a wooden dock and toward the vast endless ocean. The six tails's monstrous worth on the aging wooden dock proved too much as it began to loudly creek under the weight and began to crack into the wood.

The six tails took a step forward and the docks finally caved in. The six tails struggled to escape thrashing the water and fighting against the confides of the wood posts sticking into it and the other docks holding it back. It had fallen over 20 feet into the water which was another 40 foot drop to the bottom, and all together was a 60 foot drop to the six tails.

The six tails made an incoherent noise as it spewed out like a sprinkler and showered the entire dock in the yellow eating substance. In a matter of seconds the docks were reduced to nothing and John had to take a right turn to make it back into the village, and hoped that the trap he mentally set had worked for now...

He looked upon his TACTICAL/TACPAD on his left wrist and held it up for a second as he quickly pressed the coordinated spot for a supply drop from the strike fighter. Since he was without any weapons, except a combat knife and a magnum.

Master chief heard another humongous crash of brick and wood off to the very end of the road and saw the Six tails had freed itself from the docks and was beginning to hastily stomp its way over to John, while it's tails swung wildly and beginning to lay waste to the village. It opened it mouth very wide and showed its dark purple gums as it began to gob up a superfluity of bubbles ranging from different sizes.

The bubbles raced above chief and began to surround him. John acted on compulsion and unclipped his magnum. The six tails was getting closer to him but he was surrounded on all sides by bubbles. Now John was getting really frustrated by the deadly things as bubbles... He raised his arm high and fired at one of the bubbles that could have devoured him...

One of the bubbles he shot at exploded and pushed him back slightly, but one got stuck to his arm and that one too blew up. The bubble that had popped sent out an electrical current that went through Johns systems and caused his shielding to go down slightly by 2%... Then another attached to him... Then another one...

And another...

And another...

And another...

And another...

And another...

And another...

And another...

And another...

And another...

And another...

Soon The Master chief found himself completely enclosed by the mass array of bubbles that covered him head toe. John didn't let go of his magnum and tried as hard as he could to rub them off. But his hands were coated in the bubbles and he would only cause them to rub together and not be able to grab anything. He tried to bash his hands together until...

**BBBBBBBBZZZZZZZZZZZIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTT**

Electricity always gave off a distinct smell. Truthfully, it was never the electricity itself since it had no distinctive scent. But the sparks created by electricity would give off the aroma of sulfur. All John could do was clench his teeth as hard as he could until he could feel his jaw began to lock up, from his muscles became rock hard.

His entire body had been electrocuted all at once within a few seconds, giving him a powerful shock of thousands of volts. His armor had completely went completely off the charts and his shields went down completely. John was standing completely still as his muscles were completely stiff as stone, and his heart was giving off a quivering beat. Smoke radiated off his arms, legs, chest, and everywhere else giving off a foul burnt smell. He growled a silent noise before falling backward onto the ground eliciting a very loud thump of metal and stone. John felt his teeth chatter from the remaining currents in his body and couldn't stop shaking.

_**HUD:WARNING: HEART LEVEL &amp; RESPIRATORY SYSTEM/ STATUS/ CRITICAL**_

Johns muscles didn't ease up and he could feel his lungs begin to become sore from the lack of breathing. After a certain amount of charge that goes through your body, certain muscles within the body would constrict and no longer function. At 20mA your lungs would become paralyzed and wouldn't be able to circulate oxygen to your blood. But that wasn't the most serious part,at around 500mA DC would cause ventricular fibrillation... It would begin to affect the heart rate drastically.

Both would cause death to anyone normal and unlucky enough to be caught in such an unlucky condition...

But John wasn't _unlucky. _However... Right now John was at the complete mercy of the Six tailed Slug who began approaching him.

...

...

...

...

John took in an excessive amount of air as his lungs began to function properly. Taking a small breath once again, he felt sweat pool around his forehead and roll down the side.. His eyes were met with the pure white sky of clouds and mist and he could feel the ground shake. This had been the second time he had incapacitated by lightning... Or electricity. Only this time it was his muscles that had become stiff as a board, not his armor. His heart rate was still at an odd pace considering he was shocked with an unknown level of volts at an unknown charge of amps, but he was lucky enough to be alive. The protein in his muscles was at a very high density since the Muscular Enhancement Injections not only made his muscles more resilient to severe cases of electrical shocks if the became too great.

John then saw the six tail's shadow cast over him like a darkening blanket of death. John moved his neck despite the lack of muscle control at the moment. In times like these, John was like a turtle. While he was a human who could die from anything ranging from bullets to plasma, he was protected by his outer shell if threatened. The turtle of all shapes and sizes had survived through millions of years of evolution through the use of the shell. The defense, the home, their only sole defense. John had prevailed with his defense on countless operations for his service. But to every light side came a disadvantage. While the turtle had full protection to most predators and the overall environment, it would sometimes fall on top of its back... And remain like that until it eventually flipped right side up...

...Or it would die.

Since The Master chief had gone through a series of unpromising events, he had been constricted on more times than he could count. His luck with being prisoner was stronger as it ever was since this was now the 5 time he had been playing prisoner. But this was the second time lightning was involved.

John's heart rebutted back into its rhythmic beating as he felt his chest become less heavy and the ease lighten significantly. His armor broke into the stone ground and grounded when he tried to trudge his weight away. He couldn't hear what was going on around him, and his mouth had become increasingly dry.

His thoughts went back to bracing his arms as much as he could muster and began to force his shoulders up but couldn't budge them an inch. The sense in his arms and legs were there... But they were so stiff from the electrical shock from his system redirection... That it had literally numbed him to ever solid nerve. His pectorals were hard as stone before... But now they were as hard as diamonds.

Lightning was now his biggest enemy next to the fate of causes.. Out of anything that could stop him physically, it had to be some type of element, and that was electricity. His entire armor was like a lightning rod , begging to be shorted out, and cause him severe damage to the wearer. He didn't have the slightest theory that MJOLNIR assault armor was weak to anything other than excessive damage ,to sizable pressure. It would overload and have to reboot the system.

The six tails cheeks began to puff up as acid filled in its mouth. John meanwhile thrashed his arms about as hard as he could to try an reassess the nerve. His arms began to move lightly for a few centimeters from the blood beginning to flow through, but not enough for any voluntary movement. Johns attempted to shift his legs but they felt as if they were under the weight of a UNSC Elephant...

Johns fingers twitched slightly as he felt the motion feeling take effect. He looked up at the six whose cheeks had become so gigantic from the amount of acid it began to drip out the corners of its slimy yet wide mouth. A few drops landed next to chiefs head by a mere few inches as it hissed when it hit the cold ground. The acid seemed to be highly potent and could dissolve through almost anything if it made contact. John growled as he forced it harder.. And harder...

And harder...

If he could hit a key to an incised message on his TACPAD, he would be able to send out a message to the strike fighter, and send out a target marker on the six tails. But, the TACPAD had to set a loading beacon a decipher the message after each use of 30 to 20 minutes. In all, it took a very long time.

His arms began to move centimeter by centimeter over the cobblestone and a warm buzzing was heard from his back. He felt something snap into place on his back and before he knew it..

_...he was flying._

He skidded across the ground opposite of the six tails when all he could hear was the roar of an engine, and the screeching of metal... Wait.

His jet pack...

His back was pulling into him, like an invisible life saving harness.

His jet pack had activated...

How?

John zoomed while grinding on the ground eliciting sparks, and kicking up dust and saw the beast became smaller and smaller in chiefs vision with a dust trail following. He had escaped right at the very last millisecond as the waterfall of acid poured onto the ground nearly creating a lake. It went on and on over the street and a steamy substance began to roughly form over the road as it ate through and broke down the stone.

John's jet pack was acting uncoordinated, and as a result he smashed into a small shop through the wooden under seal. The wood held little to no protection when he ripped right through it, but it did provide a soft landing though as chief crashed into piled furniture piled against the wall. His armor lost 5% of its shields but nothing too serious. Glass shattered, wood crumbled, and all the chairs and tables in the way were plowed on through Johns weight. John rolled onto his stomach as he stood up roughly. He saw a few blimps behind him as he spun around with his pistol raised... Only to be met with the sight of a woman.

The woman gasped loudly as she shivered in fear. She was young, around the age of 20 or so with ebony silk hair and tan skin wearing a red nightgown. She was pressed against the wooden wall with a small bundle in her arms, a baby. John's eyes didn't soften but he felt his arm begin to tire out from the previous fatigues, and his hand dropped when he saw the woman was no threat. The woman was shaking as a gurgling roar rang echoed through store. John took his eyes off the woman and heard her scurry away as John focused all his attention on the beast...

As he left, the woman watched the green armored man leave the store over the broken glass... and she saw an orange light ripple appear over his jet pack..and it seem to repair it.. Her face contorted to amazement as she saw the orange glowing ripple glide over the mans back... and then disappeared. It looked almost like magic... But it looked nothing like chakra.

A baby's wails brought her out of her thoughts as she began to rock the baby back and forth. "Its alright Ao-kun, mommies here..." She looked out to the spartan to where he once stood and hoped her husband Goro was alright ,and would not come face to face with that thing...

He walked speedily outside the shop trying to gain the feeling in his legs, which were being restored at a great pace, and he kept trying to think on how his jet pack was repaired... But he had to pay attention the the six tails rushing towards him. John shook his arms and tried shaking his legs, they felt sorely stiff but he would have no choice but to try and take the six tails head on, and get far enough away to call the strike fighter...

He had to move aside hastily as another one of the elongated tails smashed the road. John halted his Tacpad for a moment and try to distract the monster for a minute. He rushed forward toward the tailed beast as he removed his Jet Pack, primed a grenade on it and tossed it at the slug. The tailed beast surprisingly held it tails in front of it like a defensive shield in "X formation and caught the flying primed Jet-pack meant to go off...

**BOOOOOOOOOOOM!**

John cursed under his breath as he saw his only offense measure be thrown off by the six tails like it was nothing. This animal.. or alien was proving to be smarter than it looked, like it was adapting to his strive for every second he fought it... It had learned what John had formulated as a simple straightforward attack plan and blocked it like it was nothing... Not even a scratch.

_It was learning._

John licked his chapped lips as he was now standing several feet away with his back facing the open road and across from the six tails. The six tails was standing on a partly destroyed building complex, with it's slimy meaty tails swishing back and forth. Its posture read playfulness, but to Master chief it only read aggressiveness. This very moment John was perplexed at the Six tails staring at him... Waiting for a single motion and strike in for the kill. John twitched his fingers after feeling the phantom pistol still there. In these type of situations John would try to use a different advancement which involved using the area as a weapon...

But this did not apply to 7 hundred foot tall slugs.

The six tails rolled its flabby head back and stared at the sky as a low continuous rumble emitted from his vocal cords. Through John's HUD, it's surrounding outline of its body was beginning to compose of something he had not seen before. A fluctuation of dark energy spiked around it and began to spur the gravity causing rocks to float up. It even the caused the ground from underneath it to sink in from an unknown force, making John feel weary of what was going to come.

John didn't know what it was doing but took one last attack. He sprinted forward as he unclipped his magnum and began firing at the slug at its head until it ran dry. All of the bullets were either sucked into the pulpy flesh, or slid down it massive chin. Almost in a matter of seconds, faster than John could process, a dark red, black and orange sphere formed above the beasts mouth and shot at John like a bullet. The sphere was bigger than John, and was going at the speed equivalent to a MAC gun shell.

Master chief attempted to sidestep the oncoming attack the best that he could by turning his body left... But his eyes widened as it's brightness blinded him and struck him on the side of his body.

**BOOOOOOOM!**

**"UGHHU!"**

The sphere detonated upon impact and made John feel his insides rattle from the unstoppable shock. It was almost an instantaneous boom that compressed all his insides and nearly made him gag from the collision. The sphere felt like an absolute bomb went off on his chest and its intensity was like being stuck to a covenant sticky grenade, but the speed of it was almost as equivalent to firing a Spartan Laser. The force of the ball made him fly across the road for a full 5 seconds of non stop rolling, making him try to grab anything to halt his movement. He tried to halt his motions and gain better control, but he ran out of time as he crashed into a stone wall...

HARD...

The energy of the impact caused the rock to crack and spread a spider's like web under the sudden weight of Master chief's armor smashing into it. John slid down against the wall with a downward look toward his legs as he felt sick from the collision almost suddenly. The entire time laps from standing and being hit took less than a minute, it was shocking. His armor's energy shielding went down completely from the explosion and its sound of emitting it's _"DANGER ARMOR DOWN"_ warning quite loudly in chiefs helmet.

The heat from the explosion was so intense he could feel it touch and burn his skin underneath his chest piece. Biofoam projectors began spraying over his torso from up to his collarbone and down toward his waist. The pain was minimal in John pain tolerance meter. When he attempted to move forward and his chest rubbed against the armor, John gasped in discomfort as he felt a burn smear across his system. . He looked down to see his normal UNSC green on the entire right side of his chest had turned ash black and smoking a little from the high temperatures . He felt as if he had become poisoned from the potency of the energy. Biting into his lips to ignore the pain, John struggled to get up.

The MJOLNIR armor could only take so much damage at once before it had to reload itself after constant damage... But the fact of the reality is...

That sphere could have very well killed him...

After a few seconds of the explosions sound ringing through his ears, and spots in his vision from the brightness, he slowly looked up quickly to see the Slug rushing at him from down the road like a hungry serpent who sought to taste blood. The speed of this thing was stunning since it actually had a pair of legs... Very minuscule legs in Johns viewpoint and shouldn't have been able to lift that enormous being without fault...

The sound of the six tails's slime slipping over the cobblestone road along with the sound of its feet smashing into the ground was comparable to the sound of a rocks being smashed and the ground with everything around it shaking.

John pushed and pushed to get himself up. He pushed more forcibly this time and grunted as he pushed himself up and watched as the monster kept rushing at him like a mad hippo.. He calculated at it's speed which was around 18 mph, and he was 40 feet across... This meant he needed to time a jump precisely or be rammed.

The slugs speed was fast by the normal eye, but in John's vision it was as slow as an actual moving snail. That can be thanked to the augmentations which granted him superior genes. One of them was Occipital Capillary Reversal, which gave him a faster perception of vision with fast moving procedure made the rods underneath his retinas to pump more blood, giving him a higher level of awareness. It was created in order for Spartans to attempt such feats as dodging bullets and on some occasions scorpion missiles.

John had proven this true by actually deflecting a scorpion ballistic missile with just his left forearm during a training routine. Chief was also VERY lucky to have survived this procedure and was a marked success...

Otherwise it would have costed him his eyesight.

That sphere however proved to be way too fast for John's capability and went faster than he could possibly imagine. Its velocity was fierce, his speedometer couldn't pinpoint it quick enough. But from now on if he ever ran into a tailed beast he would have to approach it with high caution...

When the Slug was only 2 feet away John side quickly flipped expertly away out of the six tails way, as it's momentum caused it to crash into the statue behind him, catching it off guard. The six tails roared loudly through the slime coating it's mouth as the massive pieces of the rock from the gave way. Collapsing on him. One piece of the statue squished the six tails around the slimy torso and caused the ground underneath it to crack slightly. The six tails squirmed and shook the ground roughly, beating its slab like tails on the ground and emitting booms for miles.

This gave John enough time to go back onto his TACPAD and press the selection key from four different types of weapons. He looked over the listing and denied taking anything with firing bullets since they had no effect on the slimy beast as they would simply disappear inside the slimy torso of it's . He looked at the very end of the listing and he instantly selected an ASYMMETRICAL RECOIL-LESS CARBINE-920, better known as a Rail gun.

The ammunition consisted of 16x65 high explosive projectile that traveled at supersonic speed, that could leave an everlasting imprint on any enemy that they'll never forget.

John quickly pressed the green word that said, _**"WEAPONS DROP/ SELECTION/ ASYMMETRICAL RECOIL-LESS CARBINE-920/ CONFIRMED/"**_ and had to wait for it's descent to earth... Although he would have to first wait a few seconds for it to exit out of the strike fighter, and to pinpoint where it was going to land without being too far way. Where chief was facing, it would land an amount of feet away without being caught in any moving objects path. But it needed time to calculate a preferable area.

John had to dodge a slide attack from the giant six tails as had escaped from the rocky prison that had trapped him but escaped. John dodged another strike from it and shot forward attempting to run him down. He managed to roll out of the way and took a desperate alternative since he had no other weapons. He summed up his thought before charging at the slug monster at full speed. He pulled his arm back as he slammed his fist into the gooey stomach of the slug, emitting a moan of displeasure from it.. He then dug his fingers around the fleshy substance, grabbed a chunk of it and tore it out, attempting to cause the slug as much damage as possible. This proved ineffective as the six tails swung its tail at him, but he was able to duck underneath the strike and jumped back.

John then heard a scream of something falling from the sky...

In a matter of seconds awaited, the metal UNSC weapons deployment pod dropped out from the sky and stabbed the ground next to a building approximately 27 yards away. It stabbed in the cobblestone ground, becoming firmly placed. Inside was the railgun, two multi-purpose hand grenades, and 9 rounds of ammunition for the weapon. The drop pod was shaped in a capsule form and was around 5 feet tall, with a 28 inch radius giving it enough room to hold the firearm. The outside exterior was colored in standard green UNSC colors with a single white line. Its lid popped open then off the hinges and sent the it off onto the stone ground skidding for a few feet until it stopped. The original version of drop pods were drop crates which were meant to carry more than one weapon, but due to the size of the strike fighter and excessive weight from the box, there were only two pods containing only one weapon.

John stared at the weapon that was his only chance of survival... and so did the six tails. The slug observed the weapon for a moment and had one solid thought...

Danger...

John automatically raced toward it in a blink of an eye making the six tails attempt to spit acid at him. Johns speed did not hesitate as he ducked under the first glob that almost hit him by inches, then rolled forward quickly using his hands as the first thing he would grab onto.

His fingers slipped right into the the handle of the rail gun, and he yanked it off the hilt connecting it to the pod without a care. He aimed at the slug as his hand nestled the end of the barrel. The six tails began running at him in a slow pace, but began to trip through a few stalls that had gotten in the way and which made it nearly fall over from the weight. John breathed slowly as he sat straight up and aimed the weapon at the six tails.

The Six tails stood up this time and roared through slime making its less than subtle noise bounce out the market district in kiri. Its eyes locked onto Master chief and it began to slowly breathe. It leaned it's head back as it started to perform the explosive sphere again as he sunk into the ground, and dark energy collected around it above creating a dark purple ball.

John pulled down the trigger making the orange screen light up red as it started charging the weapon. The orange screen reticle turned green and soon a low hum emitted from the barrel, then the cylinder in the chamber began rotating at medium pace before it went to a very fast rate. The interior opening of the barrel began to glow light blue then the kinetic force began to accelerate until-

**SHOOM!**

A very large smoldering burn appeared on the face of the six tails's face making it fly back, landing against a small flower shop crushing it. A dust cloud appeared and moved over the six tails, a moan was heard in what seemed like pain as it wobbled around the destroyed structure. John didn't hesitate to fire again as he let unloaded the empty shell, then reloaded another slug into the chamber, and let the gun charge up. Another shot rang out as John let another explosive round hit the dust cloud hitting the its target.

**SHOOOM!**

This gained another painful cry from the six tails, but it's life force didn't falter once.. John did the same routine as he began slowly walking forward, placed another shell in the barrel and charged the gun again...

**SHOOOM!**

And Again...

**SHOOOM!**

And Again...

**SHOOOM!**

And Again...

**SHOOOM!**

The Six tails now began to behave wild and mad from where the unknown pains began to appear at a fast pace. It thrashed about like a caged animal, and began to lash at anything. This caused the smoke mixed in with dust to disperse and move about erratically with each motion of the six tails. Meanwhile its flesh giving off a foul odor of burnt slime. John noticed his scanner began beeping as he looked behind and saw more blimps appear in the background. Chief grew increasingly cautious from the fact he now had three problems.

One was the Six tails wasn't dead. Two, it seemed this stealth mission was compromised since he was using such a loud weapon in an open area. When there was more area, noise had a higher chance of moving. Three, he was very low on ammunition. He currently had nothing else to use if the six tails did get up. He would have considered a Spartan laser for the kill but had neglected to bring one onto the Jet..This was now a reminder to take one at any nation...

Three, they were now after him...

The Six tails, who in John's mind was not normal in any way shape or form. Considering it had shot him with an energy ball made of something unknown since it had caused his armor's radiation reading to go off the charts. It had survived 6 shots from the ASYMMETRICAL RECOIL-LESS CARBINE-920, which in all scientific rights should have obliterated a hole right through its body now. Even with acheron armor which was proven to be the second strongest in the galaxy, would have been penetrated or at least dented.

It was proven after 5 shots with this weapon, it could destroy a wraith, obliterate a mantis, or annihilate through a scorpions shell...

But one living being called the 6 tails...IT DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING...

This was becoming scary in John's mind... Since everything he had encounter in his life could have been stopped through any means of teamwork, weapons, and luck. Now John had come across something that couldn't be stopped with any of those things... Teamwork was out of the question since he was completely alone in this operation. Weapons, now John had plenty of them. But something to shrug off a railgun was unheard of... Shields from the covenant yes, but a living thing in a world of no technology was impossible.

Was this the true power of a tailed beast, not dying from physical attacks?

Maybe John and this monster did have something in common, minus the fact John COULD be killed from physical attack... But not old age...

"Alright team, we need to regroup with the west division to capture the Six tails." A gruff voice said in the distance.

These deductions ceased however when John looked behind him and saw 14 shinobi enter from the road not knowing what they were in for... But once they saw Master chief standing there with a whole block destroyed their grim looks changed with flabbergasted looks upon their faces. In Front of them was a very tall man in armor with half the city block destroyed... And one very pissed off Six tails. Some of these Shinobi were told they weren't going to survive this operation and had to make go in for a suicide mission to subdue the Slug, and attempt to re-seal it into a new host after the first one died. In deep thought that this would be there very last day on earth, they took onto the mission thinking of a noble sacrifice...

Lets just say some of these Shinobi were dead man walking, and their destination was a coffin 6 feet under...

But instead of meeting their demise at the clutches of one of the legendary six tailed beasts, they find a very tall armored man with no face, half of the shopping district destroyed in what looks like a battle of the wonders, and the six tails whimpering like a beaten dog...

But that didn't mean they were out of the green zone.

One of the Shinobi who looked familiar yelled out in confusion. "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!?" He gained no answer as the other men began yelling.

"Did...that man stop it?"

"Is it even a man to begin with?"

"The six tails... Beaten."

"No such thing."

"Kirigakure have mercy on us."

"Never in my time."

"He's some type of phony."

"I don't know... But that is one nice piece of armor... Maybe he would let me have it."

"Oh no, I got first dibs."

"In your dreams Fei."

"Knock it off you two and keep your mouths _shut_!" An older gruff voice ordered as he smacked both young geninn, and silencing the two in the process. John saw a tall lean middle aging man with black grayish hair that went toward his back in an uncaring way with odd beads in it around in a circular pattern, possibly white pearls. He had long eyelashes over his black pupil less eyes that seemed very calm. His skin had a bit of mocha tone with very fine wrinkles around his mouth and a VERY long sword on his back. He was wearing a standard uniform like everyone else only this time he had a pure white scarf around his neck, and a blue and white sash around his waist.

"What are you stranger, and what is your business in Kiri?" Asked the man whose voice was laced with ice. John didn't know how to respond to this. Every time he had been physically seen, someone was trying to attack him or take him in. He had a great amount of distrust with every person he had hoped of meeting. It was dangerous considering he was completely alone within this everlasting operation of survival with an entire planet of shinobi... and only one of him.

He resumed his thoughts... Until he came up with a simple answer.

"Spartan-117." He answered stoically in Japanese the best he could. He quickly dismissed the idea of attacking straightaway since none of the men had taken any hostile action towards him... Yet. Listening and speaking in Japanese had become easy to grasp onto, but he had to be careful what he said.

After hearing the answer given by the Spartan, all the shinobi give puzzled looks after a few seconds of processing. Some of them looked without a change in expression and not to care in the slightest after receiving the new, while others were confused world was 100% different from chiefs in almost every caliber. The term spartan was never conceived by the Greeks, because there were no Greeks to begin with... Only Shinobi. But from what he had seen there were no dates concerning what era he was in, not even a year. However from the observation of the lack of normal technology ranging from cars, to light fixtures, to phones... To a simple radio made John feel like he had landed in a world during the 1800's when technology was in it's beginning stages of development.

"Spartan? What's that supposed to be?" Another nameless Shinobi yelled out around the left as several of them began to take their weapons out which ranged from massive ninja stars, katana's, chain swords, staffs, and nun-chucks.

Mostly things that were pretty useless against John himself with his armor.

John visualized several of the weapons, many of them had weak links within the certain points. John also saw a few of them holding one hand sign in perfect formation while a weird blue energy spiked around them. Master chief became tense from the strong pick up in the wind and brace himself for anything. It was like a warning beacon going off in John's mind when something didn't feel right... And right now his entire system was screaming danger. Maybe waiting for an onslaught was a bad idea.

But he was unarmed, all he had on him was a combat knife.

This energy source... Chakra if he remembered correctly, was something else entirely. It was spiritual energy that manifested every living cell in every living thing. Where it had come from or who it was created by was unknown...All John could scrabble from the Infinities archives was that it was based in hindu religion of traditions and beliefs of Hinduism and Buddhism. It had also been associated with "wheel" or "turning" with different types of chakra points with parts of the human body. That and many divergent glyphs surrounding the issues...

But John didn't pay attention to these as they seemed inapplicable all together. Until he gained "insight" from the real thing. Meaning he would need to get first hand experience with the shinobi in combat, and scour this world for any possible information to his one true goal...

A way Home.

"Do you know who I am?" The man then asked calmly while eliciting a few mutters from the Shinobi crowd. John looked at the man before him and saw his stature and overall state of mind was calm...

That was a bad sign in this case.

"Should I?" John questions while feeling the air become a bit tense. He could hear the wind pick up somewhat as he heard a few explosions rang out in the distance. Probably from the enemy known as Ame... Whoever they were.

John was getting some mental images of being back on Reach and hearing explosions from covenant cruisers constantly bombarding its surface with explosives...

_It almost felt like home. _

Some of the shinobi gave looks of offense as a few of them began muttering, but John didn't care to listen to them. The mizukage however knew who he was...

At the day they lost an entire squadron of chunnin ranked experts in tactical divisions named "Team clam", a few key eyewitness reports went over Suna from their divisions of a green being in the middle of the battle. The Suna shinobi though it was a statue at first for some sort of trick... But some were still claiming they had seen it move away when they slaughtered Team clam.

The mizukage looked over the reports of the deceased from the battle and saw the each shared in common, which was a small metal object that had cut through them like butter. The metal object had a round end and was 9.5X 40mm and mad of an unknown metal. Form the forensic reports, the metal object had traveled at a high velocity from the burn marks at the end and cut through vital organs and tissue in the shinobi. Many of the doctors had seen cuts, slices, poison, needles, decapitations, disemboweled, burns, drownings, asphyxiation, and all sorts of causes to injuries...

All of the medical team had never seen any of these before... They were completely new to each and every one of them.

Although it would be classified under **_"BLOOD LOSS"_** for the cause of death. The cause of the blood loss was still open...

The Mizukage had at first thrown off the idea of a summons or some sort of unknown phenomenon, but after the tales continued the Mizukage had to gain some sort leverage within the debate. The investigation had costed him nearly 70 of his best shinobi... They were not expendable...

No one was... Especially them during this time.

They had lead kirigakure to a warm victory on many occasions with surprise attacks on Konoha forces and supply runs. Successful they were on most missions, but their death had shocked Kirigakure since they had not lost any members when they were established 12 years prior to the war. The mizukage had ordered a full retraction from the investigation with Suna when further rumors spurred on the "Orange eyed demon." Many eyewitnesses from Suna were captured and interrogated only to give out the same answers depending on the situation involving the being.

There was also word spreading in Kumo about the prodigy of one of its fewer renowned clans being killed in action as well as within a few days after the incident in Kiri. Although reports of Orochimaru being sighted happened there that same night as well, so the blame was pinned mostly on him. But eyewitness say from the first platoon in Kumo, extracted by spies in Kiri that a **"SOKO AKUMA SUMMONS"** had been there...

At first the Mizukage brushed off that notion, thinking it at some sort of prank... But his two adviser brought in evidence supporting the fact that made his insides churn and his thoughts shift tremendously.

The relation between both names was uncanny.

Then the cause of death to the Kumo shinobi were the Same small bits of 9mX45mm singed metal rapidly lodged were found in kumo's men... The differences were similar only some of these shinobi who were killed, had been in more efficient and brutal ways...

The mizukage then wanted to ignore any signs of the man if he was able to do this anyone and hope he didn't see him or hear about him...

And sure enough the inevitable day had come...

The mizukage had first heard of a tall man in head to toe in armor he had become skeptical to believe it. But after more an more topics around it he had interested to say in the least. And was he really... This man was built like an absolute fortress, the armor didn't show a single scrap of flesh anywhere. From his point of view the armor looked heavy... Too heavy in fact. Some of the piece could properly fit on two men, while this man looked like he wasn't breaking a sweat. That stick he was holding... Well it certainly had a devastating end piece to cause a near simultaneous explosion. It was so fast the mizukage couldn't calculate its exact speed. This man had singlehandedly taken on and survived the devastating power of the Six tailed slug and survived. The Kiri kunoichi who had become its first victim was on guard duty at the main port. She had become overwhelmed by its power yet she was one of Kirigakure's most acclaimed poison maker that could kill 250 people with a single drop of her homemade toxins...

She would be remembered...

But for some strange reason he couldn't sense any chakra on this armored man...

Not a single flowing current of it going through his system. So unless he was a walking corpse that was composed of no chakra whatsoever, or not Human at all, he had to be very cautious of the unknown being and what he was getting into. But he couldn't make assumptions until he saw what abilities he was capable of. He had also sent out shinobi to locate any clue revolving around the matter. He had sent out the top trackers to search far and wide of the border, and they had found some odd metal plates around the beaches nearly buried in the sand.

But it really all lead to a dead end...

...Until now.

"I am Spiningu Heizu, the 3rd Mizukage of Kirigakure, and you are not welcome _here_ ." The man announced with a furrowed expression making John clearly know who this man was after his earlier _conversation _with Goro.

_"Their leader."_

"Now stand down..." Spiningu ordered while he closed his eyes and many of the Shinobi drew their weapons toward chief who tensed his muscles. He had no escape route with absolutely no weapon, and not the slightest idea on how to he was going to get out of this. He might have been able to run, but from what he had glimpsed in the past, Shinobi were excellent trackers as they were chasers. They could teleport faster than chiefs eyes could follow, as so does his scanner, and could run across the trees with a high level of adept skill.

The were faster... And there were more than him..

He now only had two options in these type of state of circumstances.

Option 1: This was the bad option. Give up and be taken prisoner. Since it had been not the first time and certainly wouldn't be the last... But considering his armor made him physically stronger by 100 X's it was the smartest move. Play captured and then escape at their most defenseless.

But he couldn't waste time playing prisoner now... He needed to leave due to the Infinity and Nawaki's health. Pondering how his health was and the time he had spent in the coma... Today could be the day.

Option 2: Attack without mercy... It wasn't the smartest option but it was the only one he could possibly form now with nothing else.

"Did you hear me?" The mizukage said rather loudly.

John turned his head in the Mizukages direction.

"I won't." John said calmly.

The mizukage narrowed his eyes as his hands looked loose. "You disobey the Mizukage?" Shinobi around kept a very serious hateful stare toward the Spartan, hopefully trying to gain fear from him.

"I don't take orders from you." John rebutted.

"I am the ruler of the land of Kirigakure, anyone who disobeys my authority will be thrown into prison or executed on my word." The Mizukage stated making John clench his jaw behind his helmet. This land reminded him of communist nations where a ruler who was given enough power over its people, would treat everyone as if they were chess pieces. Use them for their own gain until they were no longer required.

The mizukage however forgot all his current attention from the Spartan when he heard the Six tails thrash around. His eyes became narrow for a moment before he looked at the Spartan.

"Did you subdue the six tails?" The mizukage asked again with less patience.

John had nearly forgotten of the six tails. Turning his head around a few inches, he could hear and see the slug starting to get up slowly. It shook it's head side to side trying to clear its vision. John quickly leveled the rail gun to fire the Six tails as it raised its head...

**SHOOOOM!**

The Six tails screamed as it was hit right in the back of the head right through its tails as it fell forward smashing into another building face first. The 3 story building leaned forward from the lack of support and shattered on top of the massive form . John looked through his reticle and saw he only had one more shell left. He felt a shift of movement behind him and turned like greased lightning to aim at a Shinobi who tried to lunge at him. The Shinobi grew tense as he narrowed his eyes and reached for a massive Ninja star on his back. His motion for it was ceased.

'Don't." The mizukage ordered offhandedly.

The shinobi quickly said. "Hai." and sprung back behind the enemy line of Kiri. John kept his rail gun leveled and felt increasingly apprehensive, since he was down to his very last shell... He had to use it very wisely now.

"What are you then... Spartan?" The mizukage asked asked. "Are you aligned with Amegakure?"

"No." John said while scanning his eyes over the district around him for any more stragglers and keeping his rail gun leveled at the Mizukage.

"Then you have no relation to Hanzo."

"Who?"

"Hanzo the Salamander. Ame's leader." After this was said, John was deciding if Hanzo had any relevance to his search...

"No."

"And you have no business with the Six tails attacking?"

"Hanzo controls it?" John questioned, become increasingly interested with Hanzo.

"No." The mizukage said narrowing his eyes dangerously at John. "Amegakure unsealed it within our border and launched a series of surprise attacks..."

**"WUUUU AAAAAAAA..."**

John also had to pay attention to the fact there was a thrashing tailed beast only a couple hundred yards behind him. John simply ignored the beast and decided to talk to the shinobi, and see if he could gain some answers. "Why are there attacks everywhere I go?" It was one question that had been eating at him for weeks now. The constant skirmishes were beginning to make him suspect there was something bigger going on.

War or a simple global revolution could have also been a prime factor to what the situation was. John had seen it all. Revolutions, massacres, defense formations, crimes against the government, anarchy, genocide... It could have been all these put together. But Master chief would get a cold feeling down the middle of his spine, heat in his feet, and the different bodily warning from thousands of engagements that all seemed like a blur to him.

"What? Where have your thoughts been? There's been a war going on for almost 4 years that has been tearing through the nations for the second time now." The mizukage answered making John finally gain a better understanding to what he was dealing with. He knew it was war. The way they fought, the devastation's and amount of troops he had run into... It was a similar taste chief gained when he was in a war. This was no different in his own universe... Whenever he thought of war, John would get an iron taste over his tongue...

The bitter taste of blood.

"And what are you anyway demon? A samurai?" The Mizukage asked grimly making John gain a questioning thought.

Samurai?

They were here as well?

Over a couple day period while treating Nawaki, John had brushed up his knowledge on the History of China's most legendary assassins... The Ninja. Considering the fact he was in a world filled with them now, he might as well know what they were and how they got around in during life. This spurred on considering Nawaki's ID read "SHINOBI OF KONOHA."

It was pretty self explanatory.

But from a recollection of studying, Master chief deduced that the Kiri Shinobi viewed him as a samurai. Probably from all of the armor he was wearing. It was normal for the samurai to wear iron armor for protection, but the Ninja wore little to no armor at all for speed and less noise when doing sneak missions.

It seemed logical since history state the Shinobi and Samurais were rivaled troops with the lands of Asia and part of several clans. They specialize in assassination, espionage, sabotage, and smaller mission in gaining information, also from what John also learned the shinobi were expert spies. The rivalry between the two different custom warriors went on for centuries upon centuries ending with more and more of a longer barrier between the two..

Many great men in history had been created and forged within these decades of China's history. Like Sun Tzu for instance, who was one of China's leading generals and had made it in the books as one of their greatest strategists in history up to date. But like everything throughout history, it all came to an end around the mid of the 19th century, during the beginning of the industrialization age.

John saw many blimps in the corner of his eye and he looked at his scanner to see the shinobi appear right behind him. He froze his actions to see what the were going to do. A surprise attack seemed the most reasonable... But was surprised himself when the were not going after him... But where averting their attention to the six tails as they ignored master chief. He looked behind to see the shinobi move farther and farther away from him.

John saw 27 shinobi quickly surrounded the Six tails in one giant circle. Each of muttered something toward one another and sounded quite distraught, but John was paying more attention to what they were about to do. All of them then quickly took out a steel metal cable from their back pouches and unrolled them. They expertly tossed them over the beasts torso toward the other side where another shinobi caught onto the end. A multitude of cables wrapped over the six tails like hundreds of constricting snakes within a few seconds. The shinobi began speaking rapidly, incoherently in John's mind... Suddenly the muttering turned into chanting and they began to use that same blue energy around the beast, causing it to gurgle in discomfort..The blue energy was more than likely chakra...

Its forceful cover then enveloped the Six tails making it moan again in vain. John squinted his blue eyes behind the orange visor on his helmet as he tried to see what they were up to.

It looked like some sort of ritual... But then again it could have been trying to kill it.

Slowly but steadily, he could see odd markings appear out of thin air and begin to float into the sky over the massive slug.

Maybe they were going to finish it off.

John resumed his attention back at the man and said nothing. He had already obtained what he needed and had nothing else to say. But right now he needed to figure out how to get out of here and fast. Since the multi- strike fighter could not land without properly being propelled, John had to find high enough area from where he could gain access to the cockpit. He slowly looked around and scanned the area for any high enough elevations but couldn't find any through the thick mist. "SPEAK UP DEMON! MY PATIENCE IS WEARING THIN" By now, the mizukage was losing his cool as he yelled and a few Kiri shinobi began to approach John with an aggressive posture.

More and more red blimps began to appear around his HUD, making him aim need to quickly point the rail gun at someone within the crowd... But there were too many.. He then quietly, but quickly pressed the TACPAD for any solution, possibly a strike fighter call... But decided the only way he was going to be able to fight through was with both a weapon and the jet. The railgun only had 1 shell left and he was going to need more for being caught in the middle of a nation without enough firepower. He let the rifle go on the end of the barrel and let his finger tap for an assault rifle drop directly behind the Shinobi. John also had neglected to grab for the two multi purpose grenades in the first pod, he would need to collect those if he was going to make his escape.

This would give him the element of surprise.

"I'M GOING TO COUNT TO THREE! IF YOU IGNORE MY WARNING, WE WILL SLAUGHTER YOU WITHOUT REPENTANCE!" The Mizukage shouted as he began performing rapid hand signs in a perfect formation with the wall

John remained unmoving, looking like a tall staute.

"1!" The Mizukage shouted as chakra radiated off him and a group of 4 on both side.

Silence...

"2!."

More silence...

"**3!"** The mizukage sprouted water like hands from his head which took the same form of handsigns. John merely blinked at that odd shinobi's hands beginning to do hundreds of handsigns, making John take a step back in momentary caution. He gripped his railgun as a few clones appeared next to the other shinobi, making the original 15 take on 30. All of the shinobi ceased the hand signs.

John saw on his armor it was fully ready for anything they had to throw at him. If it was fire he would be in A1 condition. If it was earth style he would have to weigh on what he stood on for defense. If it was lightning...

"**WATER STYLE: WATER PRISON TECHNIQUE !"**

John nearly missed it, but one of the shinobi raced forward at an alarming speed. John stepped back as the man's hand was coated in water and nearly grabbed onto him. John quickly placed his weapon on his back and grabbed the man's arm and yanked him forward, popping his shoulder ot. The kiri shinobi screamed in agony as his forearm was crushed as John punched him in the throat next, crushing his windpipe. John let go of the gasping man when he saw another man nearly appear behind him and heard the sound of water spilling next to him when he saw the man shooting water out of his mouth like a fire hose.

The water began to collect around John in a circle and slowly rose up to John's shins. John swiftly jumped up on pure instinct and rolled backwards. The shinobi charged forward with mixes of clones to throw him off and threw Hundreds of Kunai at him. John looked at the drop pod from earlier and his near sharp eyes saw the two grenades sitting at the bottom getting casted over by a shadow.

Like a gust of wind, John rushed forward through the whizzing blades and performed a charge through the shinobi's defense. Some got mowed down by brute weight while most took a smart intuitive and leapt away. The mizukage performed a few hand signs before yelling out,** "GENJUTSU: LAND OF SUFFERING!"** Many of the shinobi leaped away, fearing they would become entangled within the Mizukage's genjutsu. John heard it along with a few blades bouncing harmlessly off his armor as he came closer and closer to his destination which was only 2 feet away, a rotting hand erupted from the cobblestone ground and gripped his ankle. John however pulled his boot from the dead man's hand and kept moving forward. His HUD read no threats unless they were seen 17 meters away being the other shinobi. But more and more hands came from the ground and began to moan as if their vocal cords had become too rotted to process any sound. John ignored the mind trick and reached down and gripped both explosives before hurling one over to the Mizukage.

It flew through the air until gravity pulled it down toward the Mizukage, he looked down at the object before bursting in an explosion of water...

**BOOOOOM**

John cursed under his breath as he lost one of his only grenades, and had to block a massive ninja star from striking him. Some of the weapons ranged from simple swords to massive swords John thought were just for show. They all looked heavy, and many of them looked like they knew how to properly handle one. One shinobi sent a clone to strike chief, but he knew it wasn't real since on his life detection scanner, he couldn't see anything but the image. There was no heart beat, let alone a heat scource. John simply let the clone hit him as it fazed out of existence. He then lunged forward and decked the shinobi who tried to fool him. The mans face became smashed in as he fell back like a sack of potato's.

Soon, 5 shinobi appeared around John in puffs of water and all yelled simultaneously

**"WATER STYLE: GREAT WATER PRISON!"**

The same scenario happens again, with a very massive rising water sphere trying to envelope him. John through himself back and into a shinobi who got his body broken. John pulled out his combat knife from his sheath and slashed at the first shinobi who attacked him. The shinobi blocked the knife with a very long katana and tied to shove chief back. John whirled in a spinning motion and struck the knife out at the man, but he ducked under the strike. John quickly whirled around to hear. **"WATER STYLE: DRAGON BULLET!"** The impacts of medium sized like missiles of water came a few seconds after it was yelled, but didn't faze John as a few pushed him off balance but the rest didn't falter his attack. He jumped back in surprise as a shinobi cleaved into the cobblestone ground like butter where he once stood with a sword around 6 feet long and 3 feet wide. John rushed forward past another shinobi who successfully hit John on the shoulder with a kunai, but it bounce off.

Another shinobi threw a punch at chief, but he grabbed the man's hand and responded with a punch in the chest. He then performed a knee jab at one Shinobi who front flipped over the shinobi, and stomped his foot into Johns head. The shinobi cringed when he felt his foot become sore as he felt his foot slam into a solid surface. John pushed off of the ground flipping over a group of them, and bashed another shinobi on the side of the head.

One kunoichi dodged master chiefs fist and raised a kick to the chin. John wasn't fazed and backhanded the woman, snapping her neck in the process. He then felt something roughly poke him on his lower back, and turned to see a Shinobi with a katana drawn forward. John reached out but was hit in the visor with a foot that sent him back a few feet. Then in the chest..

John was becoming overwhelmed in a tackle by 4 shinobi, but brought his arms into front swipe, knocking them all into each other and sprawling toward the left ground. John spun his heel in a full motion, and a shinobi blocked his kick with a staff. John reversed kick the shinobi, but he jumped forward and swung with all his might at Johns head. The black bamboo staff bounced off Johns head and made the shinobi get a great feeling if shaking hands. One threw an explosive tag at Johns arm, but John grabbed the man who struck him with the staff, and held him in the way for the explosive tag. Chief then kicked the man into a crowd of shinobi, crushing his collarbone in the process. 4 shinobi caught onto the man and desperately reached for the explosive tag, with one hand on it...

**BOOOOM!**

The four were blown up into a fiery blast as chunks of their body parts were flying in all directions. One shinobi survived but lost his entire leg up to the thigh with the bone sticking out. He flew back onto the ground and saw that his leg was gone, then the screaming followed after...

Master chief then had to jump back as a water ball struck near his head. He turned only for a few seconds and caught a glance of the mizukage holding a single hand sign and yelled. **" ICE RELEASE: FROZEN AIR!" **

The Mizukage formulated the Spartan's strength was not to be messed with. The only way to slow him down was by dropping the temperature within the air since there was enough water to work with, and attempt to freeze him. The ice was strong... Hopefully strong enough to constrict the hulking metal behemoth.

The very air around John become a blistering cold as his armors temperature reading became so cold it was going below zero. He moved his arm and stepped back in a defensive position and noticed his motions were becoming heavier. He stepped forward roughly to strike at a shinobi who attempted to charge at him, but he moved back again as a shinobi swiped at him with a huge shuriken and another behind preformed another wave of hand signs and yelled .** "WATER STYLE: BLACK RAIN JUTSU!"** John felt his blade leave his hand as a ninja's wire wrapped around the base of it and yanked it out, catching him off guard. He raised his fist forward and attempted to smash the living daylights out of a shinobi who appeared out of nowhere and tried to slash into chiefs stomach.

**SWWWWISHHHH**

John felt his arm pulled to the side as a wire wrapped around his wrist and he saw 12 shinobi wrapped around a bulge of wires. He yanked his arm forward and pulled most of the shinobi along with it. But it happened all around him and became increasingly hard to make his motions continue as his leg became wrapped and then his other arm. All together, John was surrounded by 60 shinobi who all had him wrapped in a web like silvery wire trap.. Men all over yanked and pulled onto him and the ice began to from over John's visor freezing him... But he began to see some sort of black liquid pour down his vision.

**SHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!**

He heard a scream exit from the sky heard a loud snapping sound of metal. The UNSC drop pod hit the ground a few meters away from chief and sliced right through the ninja wire. The lid shut off and sliced through the wire freeing John. John gained full control of his right arm, and thinking speedily, he gripped his multipurpose grenade, pinned the ring off and rolled it into the crowd of shinobi... John growled as he yanked his left arm, making the 11 shinobi lose their footing as they stumbled forward.

Most of them couldn't believe this things strength!

But all of a sudden...everything around him was engulfed in bright orange light. At first John panicked from earlier memories spurring... But his armor didn't fluctuate as it did with Didacts teleporter. He waved his as around and heard cracking. He completely thought that he was being summoned by him... but he saw that the the outside thermometer on his HUD MAINFRAME had reached around 900 degrees in a few seconds flat.

All around the shinobi jumped away from the flames that had been lit up by the black oil. The mizukage sent more and more heat into the blast and wanted a guarantee that the spartan was incinerated. Some of the shinobi threw their weapons into the flames expertly, hoping that the armor would melt and it would puncture the Spartan.

Within the fiery swirl, John looked at his HUD motion scanner and saw he was surrounded on all sides by Shinobi. Like being back on Harvest when he was caught in a warthog detonation after it was struck by a wraith, John saw that he was completely engulfed in an inferno.

His Hydrostatic gel under suit could withstand up to 40,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and his body would regulate the temperature on the outside and make it for his bodily needs. John looked around and the armors visual screening adjusted to where his weapon was. He turned his head left and saw his weapon nearly at a burning point. Ignoring the swishing flames around him and the weapons being tossed at him, he calmly walked forward and grabbed his assault rifles handle...

All of the shinobi looked at the colossal fire pit where the spartan once stood and had thoughts ranging from rest and some of glory. The mizukage however was walking forward as he lowered a invisible technique and saw the flames were lighting up the corpses of the spartan had killed. He frown deeply before saying in an authoritative tone. "I want a full search into the flames as soon as there out to scavenge for any..." The mizukage suddenly got a feeling...

**BLAM!**

The shinobi next to the Mizukage had his head blown off from the side as another few shots rang out. More and more shinobi fell with blood escaping wounds that appeared on them instantaneously. A kunoichi was smart enough to scream out. "FULL RETREAT!" and turned into a glob of water, teleporting out of the onslaught. The mizukage jumped up and heard something whizz by his head. it sounds almost like a furious honey bee, but way too quick to be one. Another shinobi who sprinted away from the flame heard another couple rounds of loud "BANGS." And began to experience the most painful thing he had felt since it had caught him completely off guard.

A few other shinobi teleported out of the massacre, running with their lives.

One male shinobi by the name of Hayate, jumped into a shop and hit behind a wooden post. He was still awaiting Goro's arrival since he had never made it to the regroup. By now he had to assume the worst and accept that he had met his gruesome end at the hands of the six tails. Hayate watched in amazement as the green Spartan, who was still on fire, walk out with his rifle raised high. Even though the flames continued to roll off his shoulders, legs, head, arms, and chest. The spartan didn't look in the least affected by the dancing flames.

The mizukage who sat on top of the roof with 3 hunter-nins scowled deeply. The mizukage look at the hunter-nins and yelled. "FIND WHO THE SUMMONER IS FOR THAT THING! I WANT HIS HEAD!" The hunter-nins looked at each other questioningly before nodding and replying "HAI!" Before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

John suddenly heard a beeping at his TACPAD and looked at it. His face dulled when he saw flames exposed over its screen making it impossible to see what was going on. His gloved hand grazed over it a few times, brushing out the flames and oil, before he saw the water and oil smudged into it further. John growled and looked for some sort of water source to put out the annoying flames, but remembered he had to get back into the strike fighter. He saw a blimp in his radar and turned to see nothing... An illusion technique would not fool him again-

**"WATER STYLE: WATER VORTEX JUTSU!"**

John saw a water in a massive portal spin like a fan towards him. He lept to the side of it, as some water splashed onto his body extinguishing the flames... Except for his head. John rolled onto his side and popped three shots into the shinobi who flew back.. Dead as he hit the ground. His clone who was infront of John disburst since its master had died...

John then looked at his TACPAD and saw what he had heard from earlier...

Something he wish he hadn't...

He looked into the distance and saw one of the tallest building within Kirigakure. The mist had cleared enough to show John that the building was built like a fortress. It was wide, with posts around it giving off an important standard being, made mostly of brick, with a odd insignia on the front.

It was tall enough, so tall it disappeared beyond the clouds above... That was the building he needed.

John set his destination on his wet TACPAD and began sprinting towards it over the dead bodies and partially destroyed street.

Even though the back of his helmet was still on fire, giving him the appearance of a flaming headed demon.

The mizukage watched as the spartan left and scowled again.

"I will end you demon... For kirigakure! FOR INTEGRITY!" He bellowed as the rest of the Shinobi, or what was left who gave chase.

* * *

**[Meanwhile on Infinity]**

* * *

A pain filled groan escaped Nawawi's lips as he pulled the covers closer to his chest and his legs curled. Inside his mind images were present running through. Memories of his mother and father, his grandfather playing with him when he was a toddler, his sister giving him a kiss on his forehead the day he left... And then there were the dreams he was having...

They were the only thing he could see, hear, and feel. It went on for what seemed like an eternity of otherworldly hallucinations. He didn't know where he was or what was happening... But all he could do was watch. The dreams differed greatly from what he was used to... The sight of something orange and blocky. Then there was something very wrong with his hand in the dream. He had no feeling of it whatsoever and it felt as if it were never truly there. Then he could feel his face pressed up against something hard and cold, as if he was hugging a metal wall. He could hear echoing noises too.

They were hard to describe and make out... But it was loud and piercing from his reminiscing dreams and ears. After that there was a huge gap of seeing nothing but gray gloomy blocks...

While he couldn't remember anything being shown... He remembered slight discomfort after an undecided amount of time. Then that discomfort went into a whole new stage of being in pain...

Nothing but pain... Then the pain turned into nothing but pure agony. He didn't know where it was coming from or the fact he couldn't move and was completely paralyzed. His stomach felt as if he were being stabbed with thousands of little knifes.

His wrist felt as if he had dipped it in molten lava, one of the most painful thing however was being knocked above his eye on his eyebrow.

All he could see were his family, hear noises here and there enter his ears but before he could do anything... He saw that thing that was very mysterious in his mind...

Or him...

A man in green with one massive orange eye that covered his face...

Nawaki groaned in pain again as his stomach churned. His heartbeat monitor which was completely wireless beeped a bit more swiftly, but nothing life threatening. He turned to his left and inhaled the scent of plastic and sanitizer and felt the soft furry blanket. His face twitched a few times... and before he knew it, his brown eyes opened for the first time in days. They were bloodshot and looked tired... But the fatigue quickly left as his vision became more clear and he was paying more attention to what was going on around him.

He blinked a few times before sitting up. His light brown hair stayed spiky and his clothes had been removed since they were ruined, and all he was wearing was a blue patient nightgown. He looked toward the ceiling which was one massive light and illuminated the room. There was a curtain on the right side of his bed that went around to the very end and blocked his view of what was going on outside. His eyes scanned to a machine beeping next to him on his left and made him stare at it odly.

It was massive with thousands of small lights and switches over shiny metal that looked as smooth as it was cool. Nawaki had a small urge to touch it... But lifted up his hand to see it was completely bandaged. He used his other hand to feel over his face and felt something hard against his eyebrow... He only had one question going through his mind as he looked around the metallic room with one window...

In fact... Nawaki got out of the comfort of the bed and let his bare foot touch the cold tiled floor and shivered when he felt a bit of a draft behind him. His feet scrunched up as they touched to cool smooth floor. He felt that his entire back was bare and the only thing he was wearing was a loose gown that made him feel naked without it. Nawaki ignored it's cool feeling and walked slowly to the window, He came within a few inches and grew increasingly worried with what he saw.

Miles upon miles of rushing oceanic water hundreds of feet below. He could see the sun shining over the rough waters and saw some massive pieces or structures of metal floating around the bottom. He squinted when he tried to pay closer attention or scan its detail. But his eyes grew wider and wider with each second he looked at what was in front of him... It was like dipping his hand in cold water when he felt his back scrunch up from fear... Was he captured?

Until he stumbled back onto the bed and felt his heart nearly bursting out of his chest...

_"Where... Am I?"_ Nawaki said out loud as he stared out of the clear window... and a few seagulls flew by without a care in the world.

* * *

**REVISED: 6-8-15**

**AUTHORS NOTE: ****Ideas/Constructive Criticism/ Reviews are love... They are Life. **

**-Anyway, Merry whatever doesn't offend you and have a happy NEW YEAR!**


	8. From dust we seek truth Part 1

**DISCLAIMER/ I don't own Halo or Naruto**

* * *

"_We don't create a fantasy world to escape reality. We create it to be able to stay."_

_-Lynda Barry_

* * *

Chapter 8: From dust we seek truth [PART I]

* * *

**[Konoha No Sato/ 8:21 AM]**

In Konoha, the morning day was warm and filled with clouds high in the sky. The breeze was moderately dim and held a warm feeling to it. The ongoing noise that reverberated from the dense market district. Mini shops continued to sell good to passing patrons, and those goods went to many of the donation boxes to the troops. Families crossed the over the paved roads while tending to their daily lives like every day, and the reserved shinobi within the village continued their daily D-rank missions. There were mainly Genin from ages 12 and up residing in the village while most of the chunnin and Jounin were fighting. While there was a substantial amount away, their were very few skilled Jounin and chunin in that month, leaving most of Konoha's defenses on the ANBU.

The ANBU units covered a good portion of Konoha daily and switched off different routines. It was a strategy to confuse any future offenders from planning. Or the possible act of espionage from other factions. Suna was a decent one try attempt at infiltrating Konoha more than once... Then there was the minor threats such as Yugakure and Takigakure. It would happen frequently, or happen from months at a time. They were comparable to earthquakes in a way, they would happen when they happen...

Within the upper-class district, Tsunade sat briskly in her apartment with her shapely leg crossed over the other at her counter. Across the kitchen there wasn't anything out of place and it was quite clean with the window wide open. She flipped another page in her book as the page landed softly against the other half. The apartment appeared clean and smelled of vanilla from her candles she just blew out, and a slight breeze outside blew the curtains slightly.

The red book she was reading was entitled "THE HEALING TOUCH" in yellow kanji. It was a commonly known fairy tail were a man met a woman who could heal all wounds with a single contact of flesh. The story was written by from what legend said a poor shoemaker who lost his family to an incurable illness. Throughout his life he dreamed of a healer who had a magical touch and . It had been one of her favorite stories to read when she was little by her grandmother Mito Uzumaki, who picked out the book herself a lifetime ago.

To Tsunade, it was one of those precious things that made her happy and gave her a warm feeling of nostalgia from her childhood. Most of her books ranged from medicine, mathematics, poisons, diseases, bone charts, and many other subjects based on her learning.

Today Tsunade wore a red skirt right to her mid thighs that connected on the side by two straps, a white short sleeve shirt that went to her mid chest that revealed her mesh suit clad stomach, and it was a bit tight around her more than well endowed chest. Standard black shinobi sandals, a blue short sleeved coat in Nawaki's memory since his favorite color was blue and it was known tradition to wear something after their funeral, and a mesh suit underneath that went toward her knees. She dressed to impress all the time since she had a high level of modesty and wasn't showy like some of the kunoichi in the village.

Her thoughts of Nawaki's disappearance months prior had made her have thoughts of Suicide...

Literally... She had thoughts of it at night... but could never do it. Tsunade just couldn't put herself to grips with it and had tried her best to move on... But it was harder to say than do.

She remembered that the village of Konoha had been notified of it later the day and was shocked. Nawaki's instructor was greatly saddened by the news and decided to dedicate his day to remembering his fallen student. It wasn't the first time he had received news of one of his students being marked KIA, and it certainly wouldn't be the last. His fellow students were greatly saddened at the news to a great extent, and more of their parents were also devastated from it.

A few of the renowned clans within Konoha had no feelings from it however. While some were on good terms with the Senju clan, no one really let the death of one of it's clan heirs affect them. There had been so many deaths and counting from this it was not really unexpected. It had given the Uchiha clan though slightly more power though considering one of their rivals in power had been eliminated. But they were a very undisclosed clan who never revealed any of their internal affairs with anyone not even Konoha's officials...

Sure, Tsunade would get condolences from many people ranging from citizens, officials, the Hokage, servants among the clan heads, and many acquaintance shinobi... But it didn't help much. There was one major reason though tho the entire cause...

She had buried an _empty_ coffin...

_Her brother was __nowhere__ to be found..._

Tsunade however denied the fact that her brother was dead. There was no body or traces of limbs anywhere. A single speck of his flesh had yet to be found within the area that he was reportedly last seen in. Many bodies of Kumo shinobi, but no Nawaki. Even 400 snakes sent by Orochimaru were unable to find a speck of him... It sounded nearly impossible since one individual snake could cover up to hundreds of feet in a few hours... Yet not a single snake around the 400 were able to find anything in that area. So it was assumed that Kumo had captured him and more than likely killed him.

But in all of those months, if Kumo had captured him they would probably would have used him as a bargaining chip in the war. Mainly to sustain more control or use it as an act of negotiations .. But Konoha did not get a single notice or telegram from them in the months...

The Hokage attempted to send in spies on to some of the prisoner camps and see if there were any possible traces of the missing Genin... But none were found whatsoever in any of the cells or chain blocks surrounding the prison camps. The Survivors that were collected and not dead didn't match his description. There was discussion of sending in a spy into Kumo, but that was a plain suicide mission that no one would take.

Not even Hiruzen himself would be that crazy enough...

She honestly felt as if part of her life had been taken away from her when her brother went missing. Her only blood relative who managed a connection with her... All gone. She felt her world shatter when they called off the search after 3 weeks. Orochimaru, even though was in alrights a selfish bastard sent out 400 of his snake summons to try and locate him... But returned with nothing. The squads and snakes searched every square inch within the border of Kumo and sent in one spy to see if Nawaki had possibly been captured.

All came back empty handed... Even if they didn't have any hands to begin with.

How could she live like this?

She had not eaten properly for days after the report, cut off all ties with her friends and acquaintances, not come in for missions for 3 days, and stayed in her apartment for many days. It took Hiruzen's order to get her to finally come out of her room... But by that time she looked absolutely horrible... and smelled bad as well. She had even lost a couple pounds from the lack of eating. Hiruzen talked with her for many hours that night. It helped patch a few wounds in her heart... But it would leave everlasting scars.

It hadn't caused her more grief to know that her brother had died since that was the main risk of being a killer in a world of killers... dying in the line of duty of protecting the village he held so much dear for... As if.

But to know that she would never know what he had died from was going to haunt her until she passed away.

She didn't know if his death was quick, or if it was painless. It was nerve racking and it was also giving her anxiety a whole new feeling to it.

It was her job to protect her little brother through thick and thin...

But she had failed like always.

Hearing his voice in her memories with constant glee in his voice caused her to go into another depressing state that would go on for hours on end...

It would always remind her of how he would constantly claim that he would surpass his grandfather. At first she thought the idea was cute, and it reminded her when she was just a little kid, having very high dreams. But as the years went on it altered more and more and more bleak.

That was life though... one rough diamond surrounded by danger.

But Nawaki wanted to be Hokage no matter the cost...

He was very stubborn... to a point she almost pounded his head into the ground.

At first the idea of being Hokage seemed out of reach since their grandfather tried so hard to reach a stalemate between the warring nations at the time, which resulted in her their battle engagements between the clans. But being Homage as something more...

It was a title not just given to anyone, not even to a blood relative of said Hokage. But after seeing his determination and indomitable will, she supported him throughout the way, and he supported her of her dreams. They were both raised by their parents to show kindness to each other, but of course like all parents they sometimes tricked and play pranks on each other...But mostly him.

And that was all that mattered, because that's all they had truthfully was each other...

But now she was alone.

It was a new feeling to her that she would have to get used to, but it wasn't going to be happening anytime soon. All she had many friends and acquaintances around her workplaces and teams, it was odd to be living in a house than anyone in its. When her parents died, and left Nawaki and Tsunade to live with each other alone, it had taken many months to get over. But it would never leave...

Tsunade breathed deeply thinking back to when she and her brother would just laze around in the park after talking about their academics. She looking for her house key when she had stumbled upon her old book that was underneath her couch. It was dusty and had a few wrinkled pages from being under their from some time.

She was so caught up in the pages she had lost track of time what she was doing. Tsunade closed her book before pushing her chair back over the floor and stood up, grabbing a few RYO out of her money cup next to the oven as she slipped it in her purse. Tsunade remembered that her spare key was in her purse and could be used to get in and out of home... Or a good few taps to the door would do with her strength.

A smile graced her lips as she remembered who had brought her partially out of her depression and was about to take her out for breakfast.

Dan Kato.

The man had the same viewpoints if everything she had thought so as well. He stood up for her beliefs and was an overall nice guy in her opinion... And quite a looker too. He wanted to be Hokage greatly which reminded her so much of Nawaki it made her warm inside. He also spoke highly of her, being the granddaughter and grandniece of the previous Hokage's. Tsunade had met him during meeting with the Third and wanted more experienced medics on field missions to lower the fatality rate by over 74%. While the offer was turned down by a majority of the vote, he had stuck up for her. He was a young man who previously had been appointed Jounin, and recently lost his sister in an attack run. Leaving him in the care of her daughter Shizune. The third had denied opening the medical school due to low funding and the slow economy. She had tried to gain a better insight with everyone despite the negative odds... But got none in a room of 30 adding her.

It was sickening to see so many people who lacked faith within her village. It would have made her parents, grandfather, and grand uncle all turn in their graves. Tsunade had wanted to be the strongest Kunoichi... But her dream was seeming like it wasn't all that.

As of today, Tsunade and Dan had been going out for 3 weeks. Their dates ranged from simple walks in the park to just lounging in the fields while eating a simple lunch. While they likeness was becoming strong... Tsunade herself felt different about her feeling for Dan when Nawaki was no where to be found. They had sent search parties over the land hidden by the cloud to locate any signs of him, but couldn't find any piece of him. Then there was some report going around of an "Orange eye giant." Which only drove Tsunade's worry to a whole new level of worry.

But as time went on... All hope of seeing her brother dimmed.

Tsunade pulled her skirt's hem up a bit as she felt an itch at her lower back.. She had wanted to plan something special for Dan tonight to celebrate their first month. He had taken her to a few places and had truly been there for her... To get her mind off the entire thing. She needed some physical release, even though the relationship had not gone further than holding hands and a few pecks on the cheek here and there...

She wanted to push her relationship with Dan a step further to show how much she cared, and was willing to sacrifice... Not because he had consulted with her when she needed it the most and since he had gone through the same situation. But because her anxiety was going through the roof, she was nervous with giving away her innocence...

But sometimes everything has to change. Her mother once told her that..._"In life when you're not in love, it means kami has something special in store for you."_

And that was Dan...

...

...

...

...Or was it?

It wouldn't be Jiraiya perverted heart that's for sure. The man was not exactly a sight for sore eyes... He was compassionate and serious at times needed, but Tsunade didn't want to stoop herself to a perverts standards who only was only a skirt chaser. The only reason he had begun to chase after her were due to bodily assets being added over puberty when he claimed her as "flat-chested" when they were young kids... Well not anymore. She had gone through many sizes in her few years time and when they had began to develop when she turned 13. After that it just became a blur of different sizes.

Tsunade was very spiteful towards Orochimaru, but that was his nature of course so she could not blame him. he had been like that during the very day his own parents were killed in front of him. Tsunade was given a talk to by Hiruzen and he asked her in time to find forgiveness for Orochimaru. She agreed to of course. But only to part the wall from them and their "oh so clear" friendship... Even if there wasn't much of one. When she was younger, she had a small crush on Orochimaru... But after years of being alongside him and seeing he had no formal interests in the opposite sex, Tsunade crossed him out for being perverted or legible...

Dan was not perverted in anyway... Which was surprising to say in the least. Since she had always assumed the opposite sex were either asexual or perverts. There was never a middle in her opinion.

Once a pervert, always a pervert.

She had something special in store for Dan though. Tsunade smirked to herself as she remembered buying a very lacy pair of purple lingerie at The clothing store the night before. The outer frill were black while the pair was dark purple, and the G-cup bra was purple and see through... She hoped Dan would like it. It wasn't cheap though, almost 3000 Ryo.

Oh who was she kidding... He would love it.

This was the only time they would spend some time together since she and Dan were tasked of going to an A-rank mission within the land of rain within the week. It was to take down an operation of prison camps along the border... Without being caught that is.. It was going to be dangerous from the sound of it and it was going to escalate to an uprising since Konoha shinobi weren't very adept to rainy weather. Call it bad luck if you would, but if this mission was successful Konoha would have a huge lead in the war, and knock Amegakure down a few pegs.

Tsunade began walking to her front door when she stepped on something squishy. Her eyes went to confusion when she lifted her left foot to see it was a little green toad who began grumbling. She growled before the toad who grinned and said.** "Hey lady, do ya step on all your house guests?"** The green toad said in a very thick tone. The toad was a simple messenger of Jiraiya, while this toad was a bit more perverted... He was Jiraiya's 14th favorite since the toad had a bit of an attraction to human females.

"Only the ones that show up uninvited..." Tsunade muttered angrily as she took a step back from the toad who looked up with a deadpanned look, then back toward Tsunade's face. If the toad was playing with fire before he was walking on thin ice with what he was about to say next. **"Purple huh?" **The toad grinned its warty lips after getting a free show of black roses on purple thread. That would really make any man's day...

...But he never saw Tsunade's high heel come at him like a raging bat out of hell.

**SQUISH!**

**"DEAR KAMI LET ME GO!" **The toad exclaimed loudly as Tsunade's sharp heel was beginning to dig into his back nearly drawing blood. She lifted her foot up slowly with a detested look on her face as the toad cleared his throat gratefully. Like Jiraiya, he too was a victim to Tsunade's moments** "ALRIGHT! The humble super pervert of Mōunt Myoboku humbly requests that you take him on a night of-**

"I already said to him once 900 times ago I'M NOT GOING ON ANY DATES WITH HIM!" Tsunade screamed at the top of her lungs making the windows shake lightly. Ever since Jiraiya had found out Tsunade started to date someone for the first time... He was heartbroken... Well for about 3 hours before he went back to his old ways. The stress had certainly not left from the last couple weeks of night grief. Tsunade was stuck between making a big bodily decision with herself, dealing with Jiraiya's constant excuses, and the thought of Nawaki.

**"-leaving as soon as possible. Got it."** The toad said as he exploded in a puff of smoke. Tsunade shook her hair lightly. She had recently redid her hair style and changed it from one pony tail to two that went down her back. She liked her hair down better since her original hairstyle kept getting caught whenever she was on missions, or she was running through the branches of the trees. It was either cutting off, or letting it go down toward her back. Now she didn't want to cut her blond hair so short that she got mistaken for someone else... So she took the alternative route from Sarutobi's wife. She was at first skeptical to change it but it felt

Tsunade brushed her skirt down a bit, peeved off that a toad. A TOAD. Was checking me out! Out of all people... Or reptiles in this case. Tsunade looked over her apartment, looking at the pictures and tables to make sure everything looked presentable for Dan when he came over for the night. She stopped to glance at Naoki's chair with his ne engraved at the top in gold kanji writing. It had been a birthday present to him the day he was born, a gift from their father. The chair was made out of the purest would he had ever created and chopped down to build the home... And what was left was made into a chair. Nawaki

The jewel itself was worth mountains filled with gold, but it was a true family heirloom that could never fall into the wrong hands.

To Tsunade... It was all of her brother she had left to remember him by physically. It had his smell in it, and she could still remember his grin the day she had given it to him. Tsunade looked at her necklace around her neck before she grasped it and kissed it softly. She looked up at the clock and saw the time was 9:00 AM on the dot. Her hand let go of the necklace as it fell in between her cleavage before she walked to the front door, grasped the brass handle, opened it, and left the apparent a minute later locking her door.

Tsunade later went toward the shopping district with purse in hand, and completely oblivious to her surroundings. Her thoughts were only set on one thing only at the moment, and that was her day with Dan. Though referring to anything other than that were irrelevant as of now. It would do nothing and wouldn't change anything, She deserved this time of solace... She needed it.

Even though the pain would never leave, and would continue to ache like a mind numbing nerve. It would subside eventually. Tsunade was not a weak person, just a daydreamer when it came to happier sides of life...

However, anything was but Happy in the Konoha. Due to the ongoing months of constant warfare, it had taken its toll on not only lives but had resulted in millions or Ryo. It ranged around for food, clothing, and tools toward the shinobi. The village had to cut back on missions which brought in money and focus mainly on the battle, and save up on rations for the troops. It wasn't easy, nothing ever truly was during these times of death and despair. But humans were adaptable creatures and the citizens strived on towards their daily life like every other day for the last couple of years.

Today Tsunade wasn't differed from anything as she waited patiently near the light post with her hands to her side. The warm air touched her cheek and she breathed in the scent of fresh leaves along the sidewalk. She saw many of Konoha's many patrons walking through the streets and giving her space across the sidewalk. Several of them conversed with their daily routines of shopping, selling and dealing with the fundamentals of family life...

While Tsunade waited for her date and their night on the town... A callous storm was brewing in the land of hidden mist hundreds of miles away...

* * *

**[Kirigakure/ 1:08 PM]**

* * *

In a damp alleyway a burly middle aged hunter nin walked past a dark red dumpster full of the districts trash. The smell caused his nose to intake and make him cringe. He looked back and forth tdow the alley with his green eyes. He lugged a massive clever over his shoulder and kept his grip wrapped around it. But his instincts took notice to something running across the pavement. It was dark liquid from the dumpster and it ran across the stone cold ground. Curiosity got the best of him as he walked over to the smelling garbage, placed a bare hand on the top lid much to his disgust, and lifted it up. Shock overtook his facial features as he saw his partners mangled corpses inside the dumpster.

Both arms were broken at the elbows sporting bones sticking out. His legs were crumbled to the point they didn't look very much like legs anymore, and his chest was filled with holes of the dozen. Blood was seeping through his armor and globs of blood were exiting his mouth. His face held no life whatsoever... Since there was a massive fist sized hole where his nose should have been. The back of his skull could clearly be seen, and that was something no one should have ever seen. The lower part of his jaw was all that was on his face, while his nose and eyes had been caved inward...

The hunter nin gasped as he stepped back letting the lid fall and emit a loud CLANG, and forgetting his surroundings...

This was a trap...

Like a gust of wind, The Master chief appeared right behind a Kiri shinobi with a knife in his left hand. He bashed the shinobi on the back of his head with his elbow stunning him greatly. John then gripped the man's face the the other hand and pulled him close. The shinobi was seeing stars and felt his brain rattle from it and couldn't see since it happened so fast. He was in the beginning stages of experiencing a concussion from the unknown amount of PSI delivered in the elbow strike. His vision was blurry, numbness around the spot he was hit at, and some major nausea was beginning to take effect.

John raised his blade upward in a stabbing motion, and like a snake he brought it down on the shinobi's neck. The knife did its work as it severed skin, tissue, muscle, and a few veins. The shinobi saw his entire world begin to turn to black within a few milliseconds. Blood escaped his neck like a flowing river and ran down his shoulder. John tore the knife out of the mans flesh evoking the sound of flesh being torn and shoved him forward, making him hit the pavement like a sack of meat.

Master chief looked down at the man he had to "terminate" and made sure he was staying down. After a few seconds of no response, and the fact his heart rate had flatlined, he sheathed his blade as the blood dripped off it onto the ground. Since the knife was coated in stainproof metal, making it untraceable if the blade were tracked. His back tensed when he caught a glimpse of a group of Shinobi appear on his HUD. They would more than likely raise an alarm and alert any nearby Kiri. Looking to his left on on instinct for a spot to evade them... he gained an idea...

In the village of Kiri it was the exact opposite of peacefulness... It could however be described in a few unsatisfactory words...

It was utter chao.

27 districts were nearly destroyed, 164 homes were demolished, 64 businesses were in total ruins, and around hundreds of citizens were dead while many were still missing. The village had just received a surprise attack from Amegakure with the legendary Six tailed beast and caught them off guard. Amegakure shinobi were surprisingly calling back a full retreat after they had lost the Six tails, leaving Kirigakure the Victor's, and the Six tails was in the process of being sealed. While the village was aware of such fables, it had never taken the safer precautions in case of one. They were rare to encounter... Almost as rare as finding a hidden oasis in the middle of a scorching desert.

A tailed beast would normally be docile toward anything that crossed its path and avoid it. But in the wild it would attack anything that were to pose a threat to it. They were not known only for their enormous power reserves, but also considering the fact no one had ever triumphantly killed one. Stories would spread across nation after nation of attacks, but there would never be a victory. Hundreds of devastatingly powerful jutsu's were landed upon the 3 tails one time in the land of stars, but the beast left without a single injury. This had rolled on for many years for a plethora of the tailed beasts. All except for the nine tailed kyuubi no Yoko. The nine tailed beast had not been seen since the end of the first world war between the fight of Madara Uchiha, and Hashirama Senju.

Almost disappearing mysteriously...

Some say it died that day... Others say it went back to the underworld...

In the present, one of the tailed beasts was subdued for the first time in over 2 generations. The plan was for Ame to raise as much damage to Kiri and stall them, giving them enough time to seige it.. Then they would advance their forces into the village and take over from the inside. This plan was almost successful. Yet, it had failed miserably. The troops were uncoordinated in the side attacks and were ultimately scratched out from exitance. Kiri was more adept to the land and had a better

Someone _though..._

A trio of hunter-nin sprinted past a building shouting as their leader lead the way through the mist. They were right next to the massive building known as the Kage tower. It was currently on heavy lockdown for the moment. Kiri's forces had been successful in capturing the Six tails and being able to push back Ame's forces as well. Now as the village was gaining control, they were left to deal with the armored man.

He thought they saw a shadow slip past them into the distance. In this situation it could have been an ally, Ame nin, or the spartan. With a swift order of apprehension of the target, and shushin, he took after the unknown shadow in chase like a swift current. It was hard to pinpoint the Spartan's actual location for many reasons in the last 20 minutes. He ran at the speed that no man should run at. It was like trying to chase a hummingbird through darkness, almost like an absolute blur. When the Mizukage, who was very adept in sensing chakra tried to pinpoint the Spartan... He didn't sense any within him. Amazingly, this didn't stop them from giving chase.

They tried to keep up with the Spartan when he tried to give them all the slip into the village...

But that is what he had wanted... later on at least.

Many of the Kiri shinobi who went into the misty village... Some would return to their homes with family... While most would not return home at all and get a new home in the cold soil 6ft below.

What they didn't notice was that above them, scaling the wall like a spider, was the Master chief scaling the building. He had already scaled 21 feet off the ground already and still made

He had pushed through 43 shinobi ranging from Kiri nin's to Ame nin's on his way to this location. It was a spur of the moment strategy, since he had never set foot in the desolate village before. He had no idea where he was going or where to go to. Cortana would always give him a relay of the area, making her his eyes and ears. But without her it was tough being alone... He had gone in a complete circle in the chaos and nearly got lost. He needed to avoid being caught in a crowd like before. The water jutsu was a very profectiv jutsu if it had been used correctly against him, but didn't cause much damage to his balance.

Amegakure from what he had previously heard had complete control of that beast the six tails. John didn't know what happened to it after he escaped from the mizukage... But he honestly didn't care. He had what he needed, and now needed to get off this god forsaken village and back to base.

It had been the first time he had run from the enemy in years, mind that it was a hundred foot tall slug though. He was very lucky to have had survived it and made it out with only minimal injuries. John would have to be wiser to fill the Strike fighters along with the Pelicans more thoroughly. More ammunition and more amor equipment attachments to at least be able to have a fighting chance against anything like that ever again. Master chief had a difficult time when it came to hunters... But this thing was a whole new league.

Were these villages using animals to fight for their wars?

John ignored the thought and dug his fingers into the wall, eliciting a small dribble of dust to escape a newly formed hole. His fingers could probably dig into steel with the armor on, and this stone was soft underneath from the constant mist around it. He growled as he continued to climb the massive building and thought of what his first encounter with the shinobi would have been like... And it wasn't a good one to begin.

John took his fingers out of the rock once more before slamming his fingers into the stone above him. He kept repeating the process for 12 minutes before his entire vision was engulfed by the thick mist. His vision was null at the moment... But his range meter was still active and glowing bright yellow on the top right corner of his HUD. John read he was only 12 feet from the top and repeated the process. The climb into the thin stone was easy, and a good workout. The structure had a few stones that stuck out and provided good leverage to climb on. The tip of his boots were even a bit pointy enough to create holes were his fingers had been before, making manual steps for him to climb on. He pressed harder into the stone while trying to keep the volume down... his Scanner was picking up movement through the wall and saw many figures pass by. He stopped his motion and waited for them to pass...

Now and then John would tighten his hand to keep a steady grip, in fear that he would plummet and alert the village. He was able to avoid around 3 groups of Shinobi who proved to be worthy trackers. John had to pinpoint where they were exactly, in case they came down upon him and he would fill them full of lead.

He waited for 2 minutes as he heard the wind blow against his helmet. His fingers buckled, his feet dug deeper into the wall, and he licked his lips as they were becoming increasingly dry. He looked at his HUD once more until he saw the floor around him was clear within a 25 meter radius and he continued his journey.

About a few seconds of moving, he heard something cutting the air behind him, out of instinct John moved his head slightly to the left.

**SHINK!**

He looked to his left to see a metal hook embedded into the wall with a steel cable. John saw the line shake a little before he saw a red blimp appear on his HUD. He reached quickly for his magnum and aimed over his head. With his eyes trained over his shoulder, John shot into the mist but could see the outline of a Kiri shinobi sliding on the line. The shinobi was struck twice in the chest before he fell from the wire and lost his balance. Another line stabbed the wall, and soon more followed. John aimed his eyes at the metal pieces that were connect to the wire and used his helmets aiming to pinpoint a weak spot. The auto aim reticle was green as I scanned over the clasp ring on the metal wire, before it turned red and beeped.

**BANG!**

The metal ring snapped in half under the bullet piercing it in an instant and released the rope connected to it. John locked onto another clasp ring before firing at it. On his scanner a Kiri shinobi ran at him from above, by running down the wall. John aimed upward at the shinobi and shot at him, making him lose his concentration as he fell. John leaned to the side as the shinobis body flew past him.

His scanner displayed more and more targets as his vision became visible around him. Almost as if he were caught in an enclosing circle of shinobi. John bashed his other hand quickly on top into the wall and sprung upward in a jump. He reeled back his arm and shot it forward, going straight through the rock where he latched on the inside. He clipped his mangum back to his thigh, and reached over his shoulder for his rifle and felt his fingers grasp the handle. Pulling the assault rifle to the side, aiming forward he waited for his homing beacon to lock onto anything. During the coldest missions on the certain parts of Harvest deep within the mountain, Spartans consisting of red team were given tune ups in their helmets to see through dense snow storms or fog to spot any Sangheili. Throughout operations, Spartan's saw the Covenant forces and search team. It had contributed greatly in multiple engagements, but the sheer number of Covenant infantry proved to be too much for Red team and UNSC effort... Or Forge...

After a second, the red reticle on his HUD scanned through fog and locked onto someone's outline. The Shinobi, who was coming directly toward him with hostile intentions lunged suddenly. The master chief pulled the trigger into the man who flew at him, and heard the bullets exit the barrel, and pierce the man. Then a there was a yell in pain and choking. John didn't stop for long as he he fired were his targets locked on and let the bullets fly into many directions as the shinobi panicked. John looked at his TACPAD and was going to press for a run by, but couldn't pinpoint it with everything going on around him.

John took an evasive maneuver as a kunai with an explosive tag embedded above his head by a few inches. He let go of the wall and let gravity pull him down. He smashed his fists into the wall and stuck there when he heard a boom above him. John ducked his head down when rocks and boulders began to fall down toward him. They looked rather large and could easily knock him off the wall and back down into the clutches of the shinobi.

Seeing that he had no where else to evade to. He tightened his grip and noticed how thin the rock was. Gaining another idea, he swung backward in a swinging motion but kept his hands in the stone like a monkey bar and smashed his feet into the wall. He kicked his feet forward until the wall began to crumble under the force. The motion scanner on his HUD showed six individuals were inside the room, possibly more enemies around but he had no choice but to breach.

The wall caved inward as two shinobi were caught completely off guard as a unimaginable force slammed into them. The Master Chief leaped inside the room by letting go of the good portion of the wall above him, and rolled forward. One shinobi sprinted up to John to skewer him with a large mace, but John whipped his knife out of his sheath and sliced into the mans face. The knifes blade cut him diagonally across his eyes dead center and Immediately began to bleed a river.

His eyes and nasal cavity were practically sliced in half like butter. He roared in pain as he reached up to ease the pain, but had no time to react as the Master chief gripped the man by his head on both sides and twisted his neck in a backward motion. The shinobis neck snapped like a twig as he fell to the floor dead. John twirled his blade around and gripped it between his thumb and index finger. He spotted one shinobi in the background moving his hands in several hand signs, suing that he was going to be caught, he threw the knife at full force. The shinobi yelled.

**"WATER STYLE: WATER BULL-**

His attack shout was cut off as the 12 inch thick blade stabbed directly into his forehead, slicing cleanly through his skull. The man's face froze as his voice quivered and he began to flail his legs. The balance in his brain was gone as he fell over onto his chest.

John raised his hand and shrugged off a strike from one shinobi who tried to smash into him by raising his arm. Then he attempted to send an uppercut to John, but the uppercut hit nothing but air as John jumped over him. Another shinobi sent a genjutsu clone at John by trying to fool him with running erratically behind cover. For a minimal split second it had almost fooled him...

But he shook his head to block out the effect on his mind and reassured the HUD presence sequence that showed no living force. John bashed the shinobi away with the butt of his gun on his face, proking the shinobi to bare his teeth in pain as he felt his nose broke. He raised his hands up to his face to ease the pain around the ridge of his nose, but this was a fatal mistake as he took his eyes off the Master chief.

In almost every life threatening situations, the worst thing to possibly do was to take your eyes off your opponent. A dangerous one at that caliber especially. If you had more experience when it came to your enemy, you would have a higher chance of victory... It you don't...

The Master chief lined the sight up and shot him four times in the chest. John asserted his HUDS controls and looked at the Shinobi who tried to cast another jutsu at him. The Shinobi was shaking in fear as he looked at all his comrades around, clutched his eyes before growling. John paid no mind as he aimed toward the man and squeezed the trigger.

**BANG!**

The once angry face contorted to dead shock as his head flew back with a gaping bloody hole in the center. The muscles below the skin in his face slowly calmed down as bits of brain with small pieces of fragmented skull hit the wall behind him; giving it a new permanent color. His body stumbled a few feet backwards before his legs turned to jelly and he fell forward onto a desk...

His blue eyes scanned the room and took mental notes of where a door was over the dead bodies. He saw there was one on his left next to a bookcase and was painted red. John stepped forward with his magnum lowered and saw the shinobi on his HUD were closing in on him from the opening in the wall. John gripped the grenade on his back waist and rolled it to the hole that he entered from. The grenade rolled a few inches below the hole as a shinobi was about to enter, and exploded.

The blast took out a good portion of the floor above and caused it to collapse in on itself. The shinobi that tried to get the drop in chief was blown out of the building and to pieces.

John reloaded another fresh clip into his magnum and clipped it back down to his thigh. He took his assault rifle and checked the ammunition in the slot.

_4 clips left._

When John observed the room he saw clusters of desks lined across the and papers littering them. He also observed papers with folders in them.

His eyes scanned over the writing in black ink on the yellow paper across the top. His eyes scanned the writing and he became curious to what they were about. He stepped over a few papers and looked down to see he was standing on a cluster of it. He read the top part on the first stack which said for a certain person only...

**"KAGE'S EYES ONLY. ANY INFORMATION TO BE LEAKED THROUGH WILL BE CONSIDERED TREASON"**

John reached down and picked up the folder as a few dribbles of dust and pebbles rolled off it and onto the floor. He shook the paper lightly to ruff it out and let it become flat again. He flipped open the pages and let his eyes scan the first one on the several steps sections of the paragraphs... And he was impressed of what he had found.

**"ANY REPORTS OF SEVERAL SUB-FACTIONS WITHIN THE LAND OF FIRE, WE'VE RESPONDED TO THEIR ATTACKS WITH SIMILAR COUNTERMEASURES. THE MOST BASIC APPROACH WITH ANY TYPE OF FACTION IS TO AVOID IT AT ALL COST, AND RETURN TO IT LATER WITH LARGER DIVISION. THIS OPERATION WILL TAKE PLACE WITHIN THE NEXT COMING OF DAYS AND WILL BE PUSHED INTO."**

"**FURTHER REPORTS OF ARMORED MAN HAVE YET TO BE REPORTED..."**

John stopped reading their and became surprised. It would seem he had caught the eye of the leader of the land of the hidden mist. Now that someone was beginning to analyze him, he began to read again.

**"NOTHING ELSE IS TO BE ANNOUNCED TO THE HUNTER-NINS UNTIL MORE INFORMATION IS COLLECTED ON THE MATTER OR MYSTERY. IF THE INVESTIGATION LEADS TO AN INDETERMINATE RESOLVE, IT WILL BE FILED FOR FUTURE REPORTS. IF PROVEN CLEAR ,PHASE TWO OF CAPTURING IT BEGINS."**

"**KONOHA HAS ALSO HAD SPECULATION TO HAVE LOSING ONE OF IT'S NEXT CLAN HEADS, SENJU NAWAKI. FROM COLLECTED REPORTS BY SEVERAL OF KIRIGAKURE GENIN. SOME COLLECTED REPORTS ALSO SAY IT'S WAS THE SAME ARMORED DEMON WHO WAS WITHIN THE AREA OF THE TIME. IT HAS BEEN THEORIZED THAT THE ARMORED MAN HAD BEEN RESPONSIBLE."**

A frown grew on John's face as he stopped the reading. He wasn't surprised that they would have found some sort of information on his appearance from before. Also considering the ones he hadn't killed who had seen him most definitely told their elders of him.. The shinobi were masters of espionage and secrets... It was nearly impossible for him to remain hidden.

John looked back and continued to take in the information.

**"SENJU NAWAKI IS TO BE CAPTURED IF SEEN.. OR FOUND. AN ULTIMATUM LETTER IS TO BE SENT KONOHA NO SATO BY THESE GEOGRAPHIC COORDINATE SYSTEM ("**N 25° 0' 00", W 030° 0' 00").** ANY OTHER INFORMATION MUST BE PROCESSED BY THE WATER DAIMYO OVER THE CONVENTION PROCESS OF UP TO 2 WEEKS. ANY QUESTIONS WILL BE HELD WITH THE COUNCILS REPRESENTATIVES."**

John took mental notes of those important coordinates as he kept reading speedily.

**"FUTHER DETAIL ON THE MAN IN ARMOR, KUMO WAS IT'S LAST KNOWN LOCATION. SEARCH PARTIES WERE UNSUCCESSFUL WITH COLLECTING ANY PROOF OR CLUE OF IT'S WHEREABOUTS..."**

_"Kumo?"_ John thought questioningly of the name of the previous location. That was the name of that forest with rocky mountains... John was beginning to question how many nations, or villages were on this planet, because if each nation took part in their own powers, he needed to remember where to stay away from. Kumo had lightning users...

He would discuss record this later, as his eyes rolled over the oncoming words.

"**ANY REPORTS FROM KIRI SHINOBI ABOUT EITHER MATTER ARE TO BE HANDED IN TO THE MIZUKAGE ON LEARNING OF IT. FAILURE TO DO SO WILL BE CONSIDERED TREASON AND DEALT WITH CAPITAL PUNISHMENT..."**

John folded the folder tightly after finishing reading and placed it on the side of his belt compartment. The folded papers would help greatly to his search for Konoha and a better understanding of the ethics within this government. John was also lucky to have found this room when he had flown in. He had to leave and didn't have much time to search for any more papers.

He looked on his scanner to see it flicker a few times before feeling his chest chafe a bit. He looked down to his armor that was slightly burned and smelled odd in a way. His armor radiation reading was picking up traces of toxicity from varying levels. They were in the warning stages that could lead to eventual sickness. He was wondering what had gone him exposed to radiation... But then he had remembered the last thing he had fought along the way here...

It was right to assume that the attack from the six tails was deadlier than he could have imagined. When fighting with animals, it was normal to feel no fear from them. In his days on Reach the gúta were weak animals with no coordinated attack planning. Only rushing forward to gouge their meal to death... But a living thing that could project harmful energy, took his cautious attitude to a whole new level. The ball of energy residue was minimal of an unknown radiation, from his HUD's readings. It was burning on his skin through his armor and it was going to cause him to become sick from radiation poisoning if he didn't properly clean off the armor correctly. He was still wondering how all that radiation in that ball of energy house that level of radiation. Almost as if it were a mini-nuke with no containment cylinder.

John looked over the room one last time... And decided it was time to leave from here. He marched steadily over to the wooden door and kicked it down with one push of his heel. He aimed forward quickly and clicked the safety off his rifle, like he had always done. He aimed forward through the yellow painted hallway and watched his scanner. He stepped out and looked down the yellow walled and stoned floor hallway and saw a few blips appear.

He turned around and saw nothing but the yellow plastered wall.

But he knew that was false... Form the life signatures.

He opened fired at the "wall" and instead of plaster dust and smoking bullet holes, splotches and globs of blood exploded out. The three shinobi that were trying to remain hidden and attack the spartan were revealed in a matter of a few seconds. The HIDDEN JUTSU on them faded as they appeared fully, and were then cut down by the barrage of bullets. All three of them hit the floor after 4 seconds of a non stop a fire rate, and blood pooled around them. Mixing in with the metal shell casings and plaster dust from the wall.

John looked down at the men as their wounds smoked lightly and blood began to sprawl slowly over the floor toward his boots. He looked behind him and saw a staircase going up. He ran towards it at full speed and looked to see if anyone was going to get in his way... He didn't see anyone on this floor, but a large amount on the floor below him.

_Approximately 17 unknowns._

Then again, there was a high inevitable chance the "Unknowns" were hostile.

He went toward the wooden staircase and saw that it lead toward a door with with writing in Kanji read _"Twenty third floor."_

He proceeded up the wooden stairs in a quick haste and sped through the door. He immediately took notice of more shinobi that were beginning to close in on him from the sound emitting from down the hall. He heard feet running silently over the floor, then the sound of wind being cut, and the sound of yelling and gasping. Master chief turned toward the door and proceeded to look for any possible ways to stop them from surrounding him. He searched for any possible means to barricade the door. But he decided nothing would hold them out.

Instead, he continued to progress down the hall as he kept his rifle aimed downward toward the door in case of any followers willing to take him by surprise. His scanner was going off the charts as 30 or so red dots were appearing like crazy. He was becoming notorious as the seconds lingered. If he wasn't out of here in the next few minutes he could possibly be swamped by an entire village of shinobi.

He only had so many rounds within the Strike fighter, possibly around 2,300 rounds to say at least. He didn't properly count them all but from the number of the loading shell cases he loaded in, which ranged to 12 cases that each carried 300 rounds each... 3600 bullets he had. Not with him, but that could be accessed. However, considering the village was full to the brim in his mind, he had to begin a full retreat. As he made a left up another stairwell, he was surprised by a wire ...

The Master Chief was suddenly surprised by a hail of small metallic objects falling from above. He instinctively jumped over the side of the hall and waited for the hundreds of small objects to hit the floor like a scatter of rain. As they did, thousands of small chinks sounded throughout the room quite loudly, echoing off the walls. When he paid closer attention to what he was looking at on the floor, his curiosity went flat when he saw that it wasn't a threat. From what he was observing, they looked like needles but form together to make these sharp objects that could have sliced him into ribbons if he was out of armor... He was becoming tense as the mission went on and was becoming more and more cautious even for the non threatening weapons.

Although the weapons had no effect on him, the Shinobi's abilities were not to be underestimated whatsoever. What is a consent, I shall be at the building of the elements ranging from fire, water, and lightning.

The ice release had really caught him off guard. Who was suspecting ice control as well? The water users within a nation that is. But if they can manipulate water, could they alter the temperature also? He needed to adjust to his surroundings more clearly or else it could have ended him right there. John did not know why the shinobi did not combine all jutsus or their powers together, but he really needed to find out a way to counteract these attacks if he was going to make it in this world and find a way home. He had nearly been subdued...

The Covenant was dangerous due to their number an unimaginable firepower it they held with them at the same time. He didn't know how many villagers or shinobi were within the area. But he had no time to find out, and didn't want to find out first hand. He was almost incapacitated again, and it was starting to become very troublesome.

Meanwhile in Konoha, every Nara clan member sneezed simultaneously.

John was suddenly aware of another presence next to him. Almost like a sudden appearance nearly caught him off guard. He automatically threw his fist toward the left, hoping to stun the surprise attacker.

His first hit nothing but air as he saw the shinobi duck underneath and respond with an upper kick to John's chin. The kick did not faze Master Chief in any way as his head didn't move an inch. John heard a grunt of pain from the shinobi and then saw him jump back expertly back flipping a few times. The shinobi nearly tripped up on his foot that he used to kick master chief and ended up spraining it. Master chief then heard an incoherent shout and ducked under a water jutsu as it flew over his head.

Master chief rolled forward over the granite floor like a blur in attempt to confuse the enemy. The shinobi cursed under his breath as he began doing hand signs again to strike the metal demon that had broken into the cognate hour. He had been is shinobi for over 40 years of his life and he had never seen anything like this before...

When he had first heard of attack and carry by the six tailed beast, he was just believed and vowed to take it down. But when he arrived he was stunned to see it subdued by a single man... Or something that is. He didn't know what this thing was at first sight. The nameless shinobi could assume it was a man from the stature and features right off the bat. The broad shoulders and lengthy arms gave off a very masculine frame. That and there was the deep rugged voice from the man. The Shinobi did not know what it was capable of at first, but had a duty to uphold and take it down...

_Oh how difficult that had been._

He was one of the many shinobi who had in question tried to physically tackle the man to the ground to see if they could get a hold on him and try to kill him... He used the word tried since getting him to hold still was near impossible. He had to use almost every ounce of muscle in his arm and a an advanced taijutsu technique to try and knock him over. Yet nothing . He tried to possibly move his joints and muscle tendons in certain forms where it would become painful for the Spartan to move. Then he could get a hold of him...

But alas, that had failed miserably.

He had never felt something so strong before in his entire life, like this man was _fifty_ men at once.

When he was a young boy, he worked on farms and had two acres of land working with wild animals, such as massive buffaloes . And they can knock down 5 men with just one swing.. He just fought all the trained shinobi like they were pebbles and he was a mountain. But the thing that appalled him the most throughout the entire fight was the fact that this man didn't use any ninjutsu or genjutsu against him... Just brute strength and the most odd hand to hand combat form he had ever seen.

The style and form was nothing he had seen before... He had traveled to various lands in his day and fought against 13 different types of taijutsu users. Many were formidable, while some were very deadly... But this combat style he had never seen before.

He was a threat and he had to be taken down now!

Master Chief re-evaluated where the man was and how close he would be to him before he leveled the rifle forward and shot the man's legs. The bullets sliced through the air at its fastest velocity and cut through the man's legs like butter. His face contorted to pain as he fell over clutching his knees in pain as blood spewed out of his kneecaps. He felt as if the tibia had shattered and begun to burn increasingly hot and too much for him to handle.

The Master Chief quickly stood straight up and shot the man twice in the chest, instantly killing him. Blood seeped through the flak jacket and began to pour out through his chest as the life left his eyes. The master chief then sprinted over the man's now bleeding body and ran towards the near endless hall toward an exit. His loud footsteps could probably be heard from down to the lower floor but he had regard of being silent. He ran a few more feet before he made another left... and saw a door that was made of metal. It stood at the very end of the hall and read in bright green painted letters above the door. _"ROOFTOP ACCESS." _

Automatically, The master chief walked forward slowly and cautiously. His eyes scanned the hallway and took notice of some of the doors leading to various rooms. His instincts told him to tread carefully, otherwise he was in for a surprise... Then it happened.

The lights in the hallway were lit at the moment on the ceiling, but they suddenly turned off with a loud click and the sound of a machine halting. The once lit hallways became a very very pitch black room with the never ending hall in John's mind... But that didn't mean he couldn't see. John looked around with his highly advanced eyes that could still see clearly. He looked at his scanner and kept his rifle aimed forward and turned around to make sure no one was following him to the dark hallway. The scanner though began to beep loudly at something on his left. He turned around and faced a closed wooden door., and pooped 4 shots through the thin wood.

After about 2 seconds, he heard someone groan and then the sound of something slumping over onto the floor roughly. The master chief pushed the already unlocked door slowly and saw a dead bleeding man with 4 bullet wounds slumped against the wall. Two were in his chest right below his collarbone, one was in his shoulder, and the other was in his neck right were his jugular vein should be. John stepped out of the room and began to walk again to the metal door...

There was only a few feet away from him and he was so close to escaping it... But he did not know how far it was from the actual exit.

John could hear wind movement from the left... As in someone was moving so fast that the scanner wasn't be able to pick them up quick enough, or he was caught another illusion but it had managed to sneak past him and slipped into his mind. John didn't know what was happening, but he felt like the room is becoming tighter as he searched for a presence. His scanner then showed a

**"WATER STYLE: IMPLODING WATERBOMB!"**

It was right over his head.

It happened so quickly and fast and he had no time to calculate what had happened or even process it when something smashed into the back of the skull. The impact forced his massive body to fly forward, face planting into the wooden floor resulting it in being smashed. He felt his entire body rattle from the inside out after being struck in his central nervous system. His mental systems registred what was going on and he automatically rolled forward grabbing his assault rifle. He turned around as fast as lightning as he held his rifle forward. He saw a small silhouette in the distance, but when his vision cleared or adjusted after a few seconds his eyes widened behind his visor...

It was a kid.

No older than 13.

The kid at Black scraggly hair and was easily around 4 foot 3 inch. He wore a standard shinobi uniform consisting of the dark grey flak jacket with no pockets. A white dirty bandage wrapped around his thigh tightly. Grey pants and a red patch around his left knee. Master Chief had to halt his thoughts when the kid rushed forward with the knife and hand and try to slice at his visor. That's cheap jump back and get this rifle trained on him. He didn't know what to do at this point...

... and was debating whether he should kill the kid or not. It was mind numbingly

The kid lurched forward and tried to spin kick at Johns gun to see if he could catch take it. John however stepped back and attempted to grab the kids wrist and tried to rip the knife out of his hand... But it didn't stop the kid from using his other open hand.

And then the boy shouted.

**"WATER STYLE: WATER WHIP!"**

A snake like being of water formed in the middle of the narrow hallway out of thin air and lunged at Chiefs back. The Sizable form knocked him forward making them roll flat on his face and stunning him momentarily. The ground cracked slightly from the surprising weight and nearly caved in to the next floor. John spun his heel across the floor and angled his rifle at the kid while the water with came at him again. But this time, he was was able to move to the side and rush forward toward the kid.

Master Chief made a split second decision and pulled the trigger at the boy.

**BANG!**

The young shinobi felt an explosion of pain at his shoulder and spun around in a 90 degree circle, before slamming into the wall with a great amount of force. He slid down and clamped his hand on his shoulder and screamed at feeling an incredible burning sensation. It was almost like being stabbed with a scorching piece of metal right after it had been pulled from the fire... His fingers dug into his skin as he tried to figure out what had happened. In a few seconds he felt adrenalin rushing and leave when that bullet hit. Blood was seeping through the boys finger and began to

The barrel of the gun kept smoking and John said in a low voice.

"Listen..." John started loudly to gain the boys attention. In all rights he would have put him down... But for some reason it was wrong to try and take him on. The boy did hold himself true to a fighter... But he lacked patience... Every young child lacked patience... And that is why they didn't belong on the frontlines of war." I'm going to give you a warning..." Master chief spoke while aiming the gun at the boy. "Leave now and you'll live."

The boy's screams stopped slightly as he looked at Chiefs orange visor shaking. If regular situations, John would have put the kid down right there. He was attacking him and he was to be neutralized.

The boy was not faring better at the moment. His shoulder felt like it was on fire! Sweat spilled down the side of his face and his lip quivered like a shaken leaf. His heart was pounding through his chest from the unknown strike that had caused this. Was it poison? Or was it His face was unmistakable for a mere second... But John then saw the boys face contort to fear, then anger just as quick.

"I won't lose to some talking pile armor. It won't make me run, for that is my strength." The boy pushed himself off the wall with his clammy palm and held his still bleeding shoulder with the other. Master chief then knew this boy was dead set on not leaving from this. The village must have done something to these kids to make them this... Admirable, toward their cause. Truthfully, it was almost like looking in a mirror... Minus the brief monologue he was given from the boy.

Master chief then completed on shooting the kid... His decision was wearing thin since he was running out of time and nearing his destination was becoming farther and farther from him. Master chief turned the safety on his gun after deciding, stared at the boy who struggled to stay awake due to the blood loss... And walked away toward the roofs entrance.

"I'M NOT FINISHED WITH YOU YET!" The boy yelled at the armored being at the top of his lungs as it echoed through the hall. He wasn't going to let this thing oppose him, no matter how old he was or how big they were to him. He took out a ninja wire before he wrapped it tightly around his chest and over his shoulder, hoping to restrict the bleeding and gain a better sense of mental control. He looked at the retreating form of the armored man and bit his lip... He trudged forward and began a slow jog at the man and began doing a genjutsu to try and subdue him.

What he didn't see was Master chief turnaround at him with a hand fist.

**POW!**

The boy never saw the backhand... He flew back after catching a hard strike to the cheek that emitted a loud smack in the hall. The back of his head hit the floor and rattled his brain inside, making him feel queasy. He groaned in pain before turning over on his stomach. Master chief had only used a small miniscule percent of his strength in that punch, if he had gone full force the boy would've broken his neck.

The young shinobi gripped his head in pain and groaned through his teeth. He stood up as chief began walking away again and wobbled his direction. The boy struggled against the wall and looked down at his feet and saw them fade in and out in disoriented shapes. Spots and colors went in all directions. Vision in his left eye was pure gray and his stomach was beginning to stir...

Sleeping didn't sound so bad right about now...

Almost like a heavy weight on his back he began to shuffle slower and slower and a pushing feeling to his subconscious.

He had not killed to fall unconscious here, not today.

The boy shook his head and looked around the hokage towers hall, trying to see what was happening, but his vision was growing fuzzy and his fingers were getting very cold. He looked up for a few more second before he attempted to step again, but he slipped on a tiny metal cylinder and slumped against the wall hardl. He looked up with his eyelids growing heavier... and had one last thought before passing out with a deep scowl.

"_I'll get you bastard..."_

Meanwhile, the Master chief made his way to the door and kicked its off its hinges. He saw the entire scape of the roof and deduced he was at the correct elevation to gain access to the strike fighter. The Master Chief observed the entire solid gray rock roof that was 20 meters wide and 30 meters ahead from the edge. The overall design was simple stone ground. It was smooth with a few cracks and dribbles of mud here and there, and also puddles scattered across from the moist air. He looked for a suitable spot to send a distress signal to the Strike Fighter since he needed to be at the highest point, at least by another few feet. After a few seconds of scanning out the area, there was good news and bad news to this part of the operation...

The good news was is it was now or never to get out of this village and back to base for what he had obtained. Even though he had not received the maximum information he was looking for like a world map. The geography book contained what was considered more than enough info and hopefully up to date with what he was looking at. He was also lucky to be able to locate attack plans for the village of kiri against the border nation of Konoha...

...because it gave an exact location of the home village he was looking for. The coordinates were there. Located up on top left corner in small writing.

However there is still the bad news that he had to deal with...

The bad news was that The Strike Fighter wasn't capable of landing and taking off again due to its jets being way too powerful. Then there was the lack of a safety harness pulling cord to sustain its landing gear. So in conclusion, the only way John was going to be able to get back inside the Strike Fighters cockpit was to time it right, and jump inside the lower or upper openings perfectly. From this elevation though, he had a very slim chance of making the entry...

The master chief sprinted toward the end of the roof over the bumpy surface that was moist and looked over to see what the distance was between him and the ground. The mist too opaque and obscured his view from the ground below him with his current vision. However, his HUD calculated it within a few seconds and showed up on the top part of his vision...

**HUD: [[[[GROUND RANGE]]]]/ [74.8 METERS]/**

John mentally nodded in approval seeing that he was high enough from the ground. Making sure not alert anymore enemies. He lightly touched his wrist and pressed the distress beacon on the glowing TAC PAD. The small button pressed down glowed green, and suddenly appeared at the very side of white letters, and then glowed to yellow.

**{ARRIVAL IN/ [[[[2 MINUTES]]]]/ NEED TO PROCESS AREA ZONING AND ELEVATION}**

The master chief was about to try and re-calibrate different a setting to the landing zone. Or to try to be set for immediately, but something on his motion scanner alarm went off and alerted him of another presence within the area. His instincts kicked in as he took his rifle off his back magnet clip and reloaded a few bullets into the clip chamber. He then turned the safety off and looked at the side of his scanner to see if there is anyone around him...

On all four sides there were shinobi conversing to his location... And it was evident that they knew of his presence.

The Master Chief thought whether it was better idea to either engage them in frontal combat, or to possibly lure them on the roof and take them out silently... But with only two minutes spare he had left he would take the frontal approach instead-

**WOOOOOOOOSSHHHHHHHHBOOOOOOOOOMMM**

Suddenly, what sounded like rushing water appeared. It sounded as if it were a mad wave against a very strong surf. He didn't question how it had appeared behind him, and didn't bother to turn around as he pushed his legs off the ground and leaped forward. His training paid off as he wasn't swept at the very second but could hear how close it was approaching. He kept running and sprinted forward with his rifle slung in his right hand. John quickly went forward toward the very edge of the building. It was nearly a 250 foot drop. If he wasn't careful it would be a serious blow to the operation.

He had to leap over the edge of the roof and began to let gravity take effect. As his helmets vision loomed below the point of no return, his hands shot up and gripped onto the ledge when the water nearly rushed off his head. The thick and dense water ran over the edge and over his fingers as he nearly lost his grip, but after pressing his fingers into the soft rock again he held on tightly while using his legs to keep his gun in place. The water rushed over his visor making him see nothing but white dark blotchy colors. Cracks began to emit from the rock when chief saw his weight was causing him to sink slightly. He turned his head down as he watched the water plummet toward the streets below. The falling water resonated almost like a waterfall off the roof in John's mind. He had seen plenty in his life to tell it by it's sound..

He wondered though how the roof was being able to support all of this.

After more than a few seconds of the water rushing over his visor, he smashed his boots into the stone and hoped that would hold him. Still, the stone piece he was holding onto cracked evermore. He reached down for his weapon between his legs and used it to clip to his back, to gain more mobility. He decided to climb up the ledge and see who was up there with him. Ever so slowly to make sure he didn't cause a free fall, his head peered up and he could only see a few unimportant details. After looking on the scanner above his HUD radar system, more than seven targets on the roof appeared with him...

Looks like silently taking them out was out of the window by now.

He scaled the side of the wall by sticking his fingers into it once again like before. He then used his arm muscles to heaved himself hard upward and flew up into the air. His rifle flew up into his hands as he gripped it tightly over the shoulder. He came forward and landed in a standing position right in the middle of the barron roof...

...And found himself surrounded on all sides by 6 several shinobi. All the shinobi around him simultaneously began performing rapid hand signs expertly. The master chief landed and quickly accessed what he was up against. But right before he was going to take the first shot at the Shinobi, be around they all shouted loudly.

**"WATER STYLE: GREAT WATER WALL."**

At first Master Chief could see several shinobi ranging from 37 of them around him, but a few feet below him at the same. It would seem that they were around the very base part of the structure and were hiding around. Before he was going to take a few steps forward and see if he could take out a few of them...he swore he could hear something roaring in the distance. It wasn't the Strike Fighter...

But he could could make out the sound of wind howling or being passed through at an alarming rate. He could feel something repeatedly tapping against the back of his armor but became more and more intense as seconds rolled by . When he looked around on his scanner he could see targets on all sides but didn't fire at them, but kept his rifle trained forward. The fog was becoming dense so that he could no longer see with his normal vision.

But the dark outlines and shapes could still be made out if one were to squint their eyes and focus hard enough. He then began to feel thousands upon thousands of tiny taps on his helmet and armor. He kept his assault rifle steady but craned his neck to the left and looked behind to see tiny droplets of water pelting him and going behind them like a flock of birds.

This is happening so quickly that he almost thought the ocean was being brought up on the roof that he was residing on. He watched in slight bewilderment to see the water sink into the ground through the cracks of the stone below to the second floor. Master Chief looked around again and saw the fog was also becoming denser and denser to the point where it became pure water floating in mid-air. But that came to and the end as well when it's splashed upon the rocky surface and into the cracks.

This process seemed like it lasted for almost an eternity after watching it, but really was only 10 seconds.

It all however all stopped abruptly...

Almost like life itself, water shot up around Master chief on all sides like geysers and continued upward for seconds on end. It caught him by surprise since the roof was made out of pure stone and there were no holes in it to show for a water geyser. Master Chief backed away in defense and tried to run behind toward a safe zone but the water cut him off.

The aquatic wall then begun to connect around him and form. He area that message chief was caught in was roughly 30 to 40 feet in diameter. The water around him kept shooting up and began to evaporate quickly and go back towards the bottom, almost like an infinite pattern of forming the wall or trap in this case .

The master chief looked around for a few seconds ,and could still see the shinobi still standing outside the water barrier. But they were standing around and looking at him oddly while some had confident gleams in their eyes for the prize they had caught. Some held faces of pure seriousness, while others looked at him with curiosity. However, most of them had white clay masks with black slits over the eyes. They each had a different design in many colors from red and blue, but what they all shared were the four distinctive lines on the forehead. Probably a marking of some sort to symbolize their nation or name.

Master Chief was out of his zone when the water began acting unstable and shook the roof around him. He gained a bad feeling in the pit of his senses when a low rumble resonated below the rock beneath him. He looked down after hearing something indescribable vent from below... He let his eyes glance down to spot the cracks in the stone beginning to spread and create a spider webs illusion. He tried to back off of it, but something... Was wrong... It felt all very wrong.

The Hunter-nin raised their hands in a cupping formation and lifted their arms. It began pulsing a blue energy around them, and continued around the water trap. They surged their hands forward in a pushing motion, forcing more chakra into the jutsu and seal to give it a powerful restriction. It began to cause the surrounding air to oscillate slightly and make chief have second feelings on the escape plan. The black kanji in black ink writing soon glowed and... came off of their hands.

The Master Chief didn't know what on earth was going on, but felt something pulling at his insides forcibly. It didn't feel right. Almost like he had forgotten something drastically important, and it would have killed him right then and there if he had forgotten it. It could be described as the feeling of "Being alone and afraid." The Master chief did know of these emotions, but he put them out of his head long ago. But out of compulsion to ease the literal empty feeling, his right hand lowered the butt of the gun and his left hand raised up to his chest and brushed over the top part of his armor. It lightly scraped against its titanium plating and downward a little...

The kanji seals kept floating forward as the ring of chakra continued over the water formation. The Hunter nins felt the pressure building more and more within their systems. _"Yes, the seal is working! Just like I planned with those seal masters. If this works I will have the most powerful contract summons in Kiri" _One of the hunter nins thought in victory. However, his victory was shortly lived when it all stopped. The kanji writing faulted and retracted back onto the palms of the hunter nins, and the massive ring of blue chakra connecting them shimmered lightly, almost like a ring...

...

...

...

...

... before stopping completely. The ring of water that was continuously pushing water upward around chief lost it's blue hue, and remained calm. The Hunter nins let a gust of air out as as they backed away slowly in shock and fatigue. The amount of energy they had all been pushing was at their max. It had taken three different fuinjutsu experts to calculate the size and density of the Spartan. Then capturing him was the hard part.

They looked at their palms in confusion. And one of them yelled. "I thought you said you perfected that seal Tochimaru!" One of the hunter nins yelled toward the other. The master chief felt the pulling on his insides leave and his breath was released quickly. What on earth was that? It was like... He was frozen in place to the bone. It was something that couldn't be described through words... Only by one pure term. "Constricting"

"I did! Unless he's human then the seal should be failsafe.. UNLESS THOSE SEAL MASTERS TRICKED ME!"

The Master chief shook his head to shake out the vertigo. He trained his eyes forward and saw a few red blurs sprint over his screen on his HUD scanner. He tried to follow them with his eyes and see if they were coming from below or above him but he didn't see anyone moving past at the very second. His eyes roamed toward the left ever so slowly as his ears perked to the sound of a few things at the very moment. They were mostly useless sounds... but he could hear 3 distinctive sounds against his sensitive eardrums...

The sound of birds flapping in the distance could be heard against his eardrum...

The sound of water dripping off a metal pipe, then free falling before smacking against the cold stone...

Finally... the sound of something moving...

Very Fast...

The Master chief faced what he was up against by spinning his body around and ducking into a kneeling position. He could hear something whizz by his helmet. But when his vision adjusted to what he saw, his eyes widened in quick realization when he was suddenly surprised from behind as something lunged toward him at an incredible speed.

He spun his head around like a top and ducked. He didn't know what happened from his surrounding that moment... But something pure white sped past his head like a bullet by a few mere inches. His eyes caught a very small glance of it, and he could hear the speed it was going at from the sound of the wind being sliced.

But this all ceased when another red blur sped past him and an additional white round object caught him on the side of his face and shattered, into thousands of tiny shiny particles. The bash affected his armor charge by causing it to fluctuate and dropping by 12% from the impact of the unknown object.

He could hear a ringing in his ear from being struck that hard.. He groaned softly as looked down to see he dropped his rifle. His right hand quickly reacted by grabbing it and standing fully straight up, and alert for what was going to come. It caught him by surprise, but it wouldn't happen again. His vision caught glimpse of the supposed Mizukage standing before him with a downward expression, and holding an odd weapon with both hands across his midsection. It was a light brown staff made of some sort of metallic wood, with two sphere like ends on each side. It was connected by a small chain link in the middle, almost like in the form of nunchucks / a bow staff. The round parts on the end looked like pearls... But they were very large, almost the size of a bowling ball.

"You have caused enough trouble here." The Mizukage said calmly with his eyes closed while he stepped closer. "We have laws that must be followed through and through. Failure to do so will be dealt with extreme punishment." The mizukage vocalized as his black sandal stepped on a pebble making it crunchy lightly. "But, since you are different, I must make this sentence truly break your mind. From this moment on, you will be taken to the dungeon and live the remainder of your days as a prisoner." He proclaimed stoically. The then pointed the long staff at John making him tense his trigger finger. What made him stop from applying just a tiny bit more pressure was what the mizukage say.

"You will then have your skin removed by our best scientists... For future study- It would benefit toward our victory if we knew what kept you so protected. "

He thought the armor was Master chiefs skin...

John would like to have facepalmed only considering he was surrounded and needed to be on his toes. He let his eyes drift to any ways of escape. His first instinct would be to try and shot his way out and through. But from the ammunition on his HUD was short...

"I'm leaving, and you won't stop me." John said as he kept his aim at the Mizukage between the black restless eyes. The leader however turned his head and walked briefly to the left side.

"How did you avoid the sealing? It should have worked on you, considering your a _demon_." The mizukage wondered in seriousness. He had seen many contracts with summons ranging from different mythical beast. It was mostly common among the military in other warring nations, such as the land of Iron like the Samurai's... But never to this much extent. He at first though this was another man in armor... But to wipe the floor clean without the aid of any of the shinobi arts was unhinged in any way. The chase between him and the spartan could also be looked into further. He had his best trackers try to find a source of chakra... Nothing though. Thats when things took a turn.

"Yet you managed to restrain your chakra...Unless you're dead that shouldn't be possible. Tell me; how did you do it?"

The master chief wasn't going to contort with the enemy. He didn't have any business here and wasn't going to much longer. In his mind he didn't have, or want an answer to give. The master chief then remembered he had a loaded rifle in his current possession, and was pointing at the mizukage, in a definite one-shot-one-kill. He pulled back the loading chamber and aimed at the mizukages head... For effect that is.

The mizukage noticed this. He was wise for his age, and he was wise enough to know when the opponent was going to strike like the serpent. He looked dead into John direction and said cynically. "You are surrounded on all sides, you have no means of escape, and if you even attempt to attack me which I highly doubt, you will be killed yourself. But no matter what you do, you can't take them all on." The hunter nin meanwhile kept the water wall around them up as they talked by forcing the barrier to hold... For the moment.

While he was right on the first sense of being surrounded, the Master Chief wasn't an easy person to kill... Almost like that last cockroach that always manages to get away and restart the family. Many had tried to end his life. Thousands in fact.. Some had come closer to others, but no one succeeded in that regard..

The shinobi on the outside of the water wall began to draw out their weapons and slowly move forward. The Master Chief let his hand move over to the tack pad and press for an immediate run by from the Strike Fighter.

"What do you think you're doing?" The mizukage stated as he saw The master chiefs hand and touch his wrist. He was expecting a blade of some sort to coming flying forward with killing intent. Speaking of killing intent the Mizukage was in the beginning of feeling something clutching at the back of his throat. Like someone ... But was met with a few bold words of declaration...

"You're an illusion... and you're wrong." the Master Chief said as his hope was nearly here.

"What? What did you just say?" The Mizukage asked as he stepped forward to the armored being with is weapon spinning over his fingers in a blur motion. This was a technique to either throw off the target with fast paced motion, or to act cocky in a tough situation when you were losing. But he didn't partake in boasting, and he wasn't going to lose a battle with something that hadn't even fought him yet. He wasn't the first Mizukages bodyguard for a reason, and that reason was very big comparable to a man who beat a tailed beast. While he heard the first part for the spartan, he didn't quite understand the last part...

The master chief looked toward the top right view of his heads-up-display, and casted an eye over the yellow blinking description that was warning him.

**HUD: \\\\\\\\[[[[STRIKE FIGHTER ARRIVAL CURRENTLY]]]]/[10.3 seconds]/**

If he timed it correctly, you would be able to make it inside. But the only way you could be able to jump is to get on top of the entrance building. But right now he was trapped on all sides and ammunition was on the down low.

He looked behind him and observed the water pressure pushing up...

Pushing...

Up...

He gained an idea...

He looked back at the Mizukage with his rifle lowered and walked backwards slowly.

"Don't move!" The illusion mizukage shouted as he rushed forward with his weapon spinning hazily toward the chief. The master chief fired at the fake mizukage... who bursted into a pile of water.

**SPLOOOSHHH**

The Master chief stepped back quickly into the water that was forcing its way upward into the sky like a geyser... And was launched like a bullet out of the barrel of a gun. The mizukage, who was attempting to sneak up behind chief through a water teleportation jutsu perfected by him, was not so luck. He didn't see were he would appear since the water was moving to hard and unfortunately got elbowed in the face by master chief on accident. His face was smacked and caused him to shuffle backwards a few steps.

**WOOOOOOOOSSSSSHHHHHH**

The master chief, even though he was covered in water as it dripped off the opening portions of his armor... flew straight into the bottom part opening drop door. His body slammed back into the seat and he gripped the throttle while pushing forward

**WOOOOOOOOOOSSSHHHHHHHH **

The Hunter nins heads snapped up, and from the lack of control they dropped the water trap jutsu and gazed into the cloudy sky. Many of them lost track of the metal bird as it disappeared into the mist a couple hundred feet it out over the buildings... But they could still catch the deep metallic roaring sound it emitted from miles around. Some of their eyes widened in shock and awe at the sheer amazement of the metal object... that was flying. Some of them had a quick thought and assumed the Spartan had taken the form of a metal bird.

Their breaths were rapid but strong in the moment. They grew quiet when they felt and heard a low rumble come from behind them. Looking at each corner for the ominous noise rapidly only worsened the watchful eyes. It was almost like an earthquake in air... They turned their bodies and looked up into the blank sky ... at first they saw something black in the distance move around smoothly like an exotic blur...

"I thought I saw something." The hunter nin said softly. The other hunter ni looked back at him before saying. " You thought... Or you did?"

The mizukage wiped his bleeding nose onto his thing sleeved coat before letting his ears take listen. The pain taking over his head was astronomical at this point and thinking of how to capture the spartan was a priority. He stood on the very tip of the roofs edge overshadowing the village. His dark eye looked to the left when he heard the low rumbling again... he turned while aging his staff but only saw red in his eye. He rubbed it and seethed in pain as he felt an explosion of pain above his eye...

The hunter nins kept looking around for any sign of him. Thinking that it was possibly a trick to catch them off guard. After hearing all the water leave the roof and into the cracks ... they listened and waited...

One particular hunter nin held a medium length sword with a red handle up in defense as he looked above and forward, into the distance for any type of contact...

He thought he saw something glow behind the grey clouds... something bright and blue... he squinted his eyes behind the hunter non mask and looked closer...

...Only to see an orange and white two winged metal aircraft began flying right at him from a good 200 meters. It started at a small black thing in the distance. But a strange vibration got bigger... Additionally, a weird eerie glow was behind it. It became bigger and bigger as the seconds rolled by.

The speed it was flying at was unknown from the shinobi at the moments. But if one to pay attention, it would have easily broken the sound barrier. All their minds halted just a single millisecond as they gazed upon d monstrosity that was coming in for the kill.

"EVADE!" The bloodied mizukage yelled. His eye was beginning to swell as a few teeth were missing from his lower jaw. The master chief really wasn't paying attention on how much force he had put behind the reversal elbow strike. If by pure luck Master chief had aimed lower, he would have ended up striking the mizukage in the throat.

The mizukage's hands created a few signs in a blur, then he yelled. "ICE STYLE: SECRET TECHNIQUE-DEATH RAIN!"

The Mist in the air around the roof formed into spear like appendages, and begin to launch themselves at the Strike Fighter with deadly precision accuracy. The clear ice Spears cut through the air, flying at a high speed toward the Jets wings and body. The master chiefs eyes scanned over the controls as he strapped himself in with the restraints. The buttons glowed under his gaze, and he began flipping a few of the switches on the sides to unlock the weapons. As of the very moment he was currently able to escape... But he firmly believed these shinobi needed to be dealt with after attempting to eradicate him...

Permanently...

As he zoomed over the top of the kage tower like a speeding bullet, he flipped a few of the rotation switches and grabbed the clutch. He then slid his left hand grip the wings flaps rotor, and made a u turn for a shooting run. He needed them to be dealt with in case they didn't follow him or track Any of his weapons. Taking account though for the lack of technology, it would have taken a while. If Cortana were here she probably would have corrected him. Now that his cover was blown from the very beginning of the operation, he didn't need them locating the infinity due to them being near the oceans waters. It was all a matter of taking heavy precautions.

The shinobi were intelligent enough to build a vast village economy supporting themselves and had numerous information on these inhumanly capabilities. They were quite the opposite of intelligent... most of them were certified geniuses. Coordinates could also be used against chief if they had a way to track him through the terrains pace. Even though it seemed impossible for them to track, he couldn't be too careful... He would have to remain under the radar when on the search for a way home...

In fact, John had to make preparations for Nawaki to get to his home safely. The Master Chief wouldn't allow the boy to wander on his own during this conflict between the foreign nations. It was wrong on everything he stood for, and he had to do what was right. In these type of situations concerning children, it would be wise to find out any information on them.

But these would be inconclusive due to several reasons. If that were to fail, John would have to take Nawaki to the higher ups in the Office of Naval Intelligence, and they would take it from there . Now If that had failed, John would have to manually return him to his home. Now that he had contained some very important documents, they would benefit greatly in that case. Then the war could be looked into more with the numerous amounts of data...

When arriving closer to the top part of the tower, it came into view through the mist. He saw tiny sharp particles blink quickly and thought it was the light reflecting off from the buttons. He was wrong when it began to beat against the STRIKE FIGHTERS reinforced glass like a swarm of angry bees. After a second of the nonstop barrage, it began to crack slightly around the closing edges.

He turned the throttle to the entire side and hit the rear boosters. The master chief then flipped open the glass glass top on the machine gun triggers, and squeezed it.

"What the hell!? Did the Spartan morph?" The hunter nin thought as he ran into the building in fear for his own life. He didn't turn back once as he escaped the soon inevitable battle.

"We need to fall back behind the safety line! You hear me!? Fall ba-

The shinobi was cut through by five of the high velocity tank piercing bullets from the strike fighter.

"I don't know... But we have to kill it!" one of the shinobi quickly said as he took cover behind the entrance well to the roof. Unfortunately, this didn't provide any cover whatsoever and the bullets punctured it and cut the shinobi and the sides.

The mizukage roared through the air. "DO NOT FIGHT IT!"

Suddenly, a rain of mini explosions shook him from the ground up. It began to kick up the gravel and dirt smacked the ground around him. The strike fighter flew overhead 20 or so feet above like the wind and grazed the sound barrier it was traveling at. The sound and vibration from it was deafening, and nearly made nearly made him lose his footing on the wet rock. It went deep into the fog again as it made another turn. The mizukage growled through the dust as he began collecting chakra and performing hand signs.

He then yelled. **"WATER STYLE: WATER SPOUT!"** He heaved his breath inward before expanding his lungs to nearly impossible proportions. Water immediately shot out of his mouth like a firehouse as it circled around him on the ground.

The water shield kept spinning like a twister for minimal protection. Until a very loud bang sounded off like a cannon and the Mizukage who was in the middle of it. His right side was pushed toward the side so fast and hard that he was blasted off his feet and onto his back in a heap. His detached arm began shooting blood out along with his stump. He ultimately lost control of the Jutsu and gained a reminder that day... to never go up against a jet..

**BRAAATTA! BRATTTA! BRATTTA!**

A bombardment of bullets exited out of the ports of the massive 120mm Ventral guns as they impacted against the towers roof. Rounds sliced through the towers foundations, and caught anyone off guard into a walking target inside. Some shinobi who were quick enough were able to find a safe running start away from the conflict. They managed to uses zip lines in their pouches to jump off the building, or shush in out of their.

But some were not as lucky. 3 Kiri nins were cut in half by the high velocity jet rounds that cut them in chunks. While 2 exploded into warm gushes of blood with bits of arms and legs scattering along with rock dust. Their bodies, or what was left of them fell on the smoking gravel and into the massive pool of blood. The jet flew overhead once more and repeated the process of another run by.

The Mizukage played in the ground as his felt nothing below his left arm... he couldn't feel his fingers, let alone move them. He hazily turned his head to look down... his good eye in horror when he saw nothing down his left, except his torn red cloak and nothing below the elbow. His adrenaline was running mad at the moment so he didn't feel the pain that would be making him thrash around... yet. He shakily got up in his feet after spitting a few pebbles out of his mouth and looked around him. The roof around him or what was left was penetrated with large holes that were still smoking, and littered with numerous bodies.

He looked closely to see parts of the hunter nins body parts scattered everywhere. Arms here and legs across the roof with blood tripping lazily off the fingertips and painting the roof in crimson red. They layed on the stone with blank or terrified expressions behind their porcelain masks... some of their masks along with their heads were even blown off...

The mizukage swore under his breath as he looked into the sky and saw nothing but the blank color...

"WHERE ARE YOU!?" The once calm cool and collected mizukage roared into the sky in a fit of rage. "YOU LISTEN TODAY DEMON! FROM THIS POINT FORWARD I WON'T REST UNTIL YOU DROWN IN YOUR BLOOD!" The mizukages once fired up inside was beginning to die down now to a barely lit flame. His adrenalin was ending and his heart beat which was causing blood to seep out of his wound. His eyes were growing heavier and heavier until he began to fall to the side.

The Master Chief was relentless on the building... After more than a few minutes of run by to see if anyone had survived, he saw on the a few life signatures leaving the premise. They began to scatter like roaches in different directions for cover. They were moving surprisingly fast on his Advanced scanner when connected to the jet.

While his first intention was to kill them for the chase and battle, he had what he needed, and it was time to go. His ammunition was nearly spent as is. The fighter could hold up to 30,000 rounds of ammunition to fire. He was attempted to fire onto the village with the Spartan laser on the front port once he had marked them and had their exact locations. It would be easy once he calculated the distance from him and them. Some were taking refuge in buildings, in sewers, and on roofs. He could easily terminate them from here.

However, while his scanners not only picked up their signatures it also caught unknown signatures. It was either Ame forces still within the village that were trying to retreat... or possibly numerous civilians.

At this point had to halt his actions completely...

He reached his hand forward, turned the clutch over to the left and shot off into the distance over the damaged misty city. Down below buildings were demolished and the roads were scrapped with craters. Fires burned everywhere and sent powerful clouds of black smoke into the air and gave it the smell of despair within. He knew that smell all too well.. Understanding the uninterrupted conflicts happened years ago in Master chief's torturous mind.

Accepting it never really transpired in a way, but took a very short time to sink in. It was all to be dealt with and taken with a hard dose of reality. Nothing more on his part. It weltered whenever he felt as if the missions he was tasked to do was a failure... Whenever he felt as if he lost a mission, that smell lingered within his system. While he made it through the mission, he still felt as if he lost... The statement could also be backed up with the large burn that formed on his chest, that was nearly a few inches of melting his skin...

And he didn't like the thought of that... Dying.

Not. One.. Bit...

He turned his head downward to the lower center console in front of him, and slowly pushed the accelerator lever forward. Making the Boosters roar as he shot off faster. The Strike Fighter went further and further... until its blue jets vanished in the thick fog over the choppy ocean.

After a few seconds of the Spartans departure, The reinforcements of Kiri's special squad rushed up the stairs of the kage tower. It was hard to scale up the stairs up on the roof, since it was nearly unfit to walk, and the walls were lined with very large holes. There was also a smell of something indescribable in the air... They made it onto the roof only to find the amount of devastation... and the nearly dead Mizukage. The group of hunter nins then rushed in and began to look for any survivors among the Master chiefs wrath...

* * *

**[Infinity/ 2:46 PM] **

* * *

"GOD DAMNIT!"

**BAM!**

If anyone had been around the medical wing of the Infinity, they would have heard the scream of a young boy and the sound of pounding on the walls surface... But sadly, there is no other soul on the ship except for him. Master Chief and to remember to lock the room tight so if anyone had found the ship, which no one had it would remain securely marked down in and out... But here not calculated for when Nawaki was going to wake up unfortunately.

"When I find out who locked me in here I'm gonna kick them in the ASS!" He fired as he kicked the wall again, before shouting in pain at spraining his toe against the reinforced wooden door. He groaned before looking around the room for a way out. At first he had attempted to escape by using the air vents.

That didn't work. Considering the vents were bolted shut with some nearly indestructible screws. Nawaki had even tried to slip in by using a shushin... But he couldn't feel his fingers... For some odd reason.

Then he tried smashing the window. Which was probably the worst idea he had thought of. At first it was the only he could think of at the moment, and the easiest. Smashing the window though proved to be near impossible. The lining to the glass was practically scratch proof. The walls were in line with the shiny sheet metal that was nearly scratch proof. There was nothing else he could use from there for any means of escape from the mysterious hospital room.

Unless he were to somehow miraculously find his tools or his clothing... In fact, who in the hell took off his clothes?! Were the people some sort of pedophiles or something? It made him wish he had some idea where he was or where he had been captured to... But after seeing entire hospital room around him, he assumed he was probably back at an ally base and being treated for his wounds. He felt a giant sense of relief that he had woken up. He wasn't used to death that often, other than the fact that most of his relatives met grueling ends for the past few years. Nawaki let it pass his mind though and didn't let it hold him down. He had learned the only thing you can truly get out of life was being happy with what you had... And that was his sister...

But one question remained.

Where was he, and how would he get back to her?

Seeing the ocean though... Made him worried since he had never seen it before. Not once in his short life . He had heard remembered hearing stories and poems about the ocean, and it was basically a lake only it covered most of the planet...Since he had lived in the Land of Fire for his entire life, which was miles and miles away from the ocean ,he had never traveled there. Then there was the issue with the war going on, and leaving the village was dangerous at the time . But beside that he had never once laid eye on a massive body of water before in his entire life.

It was intriguing to see for the very first time. Like that one moment in your life when you see something you've never seen before, and you're just so enticed by its beauty that you can't take your eyes off of it for a second. Nawaki watched the waves whip back and forth for miles and looked jagged pieces of debris in the water get smashed against by the waves. He could also make out slight bumps upon the large pieces of metal... Possibly crustaceans making new homes among the wreckage.

These questions were going through his mind and we're continuing to bombard him with their presence. He was nervous on where he was, considering he could see nothing but no Shannon outside, and the sheer distance he was from the ocean... It made him afraid of heights just to see it. "Come on... what would Hashirama-oji do?" Nawaki said aloud as he wiped a drop of blood away on his arm from the IV he yanked out. Even though he didn't have the slightest clue what it was; since he wasn't able to read what was on the clear bag. At first he assumed he was at some sort of scientific facility and they were conducting experiments on him... Or it was a hospital that took tender care of its occupants. Finding a tender place though in a time like this was looking for a needle in a haystack. While it wasn't impossible, landing in one was improbable.

Seeing one this up-to-the-minute though was incredibly eye catching though. Everything either glowed or was as smooth as silk even though it was all clearly metal. The only times he would see places this cool were his sensei's laboratories. The ones filled with test tubes, old monitors, and hundreds of gene notes. Orochimaru had taken him there, but to him it was boring. But this... this really blew the other one out of the water.

A feeling of something running down his arm caught his attention and noticed he was still bleeding. Gingerly, he ran his fingers over the small puncture on his wrist. It stung, but his thoughts were more in tune with escaping. He thought of using his sisters mystic palm technique, but he was still fatigued.

"He would probably do something unexpected... But I don't have anything unexpected to use!?" Nawaki yelled at himself while looking for a solitary pocket on the thin medical gown. His hands ran up and down the sides quickly and hope for a piece of escape. He stopped after a few seconds of looking for any means of tools on him when it seemed hopeless.

He grumbled lightly to himself while walking back to the bed and sitting on it facing the window. He rested his chin in the palm of his hand and his elbow on his knee and arched his back forward. He let his light brown hair shadow his eyes. The taste in his mouth was awful to the point where he almost wanted to gag, but couldn't; process it with everything rushing and his mind. The very last thing he had endured was pure pain... Now it was just confusion to a whole new point.

Nawaki silently began to cry when he had the thought of never seeing his sister again. Or being killed whenever someone came back. He wasn't a fearless ninja that everyone strove and pushed him to become, he was still a young boy comprehending the wars actuality. He was too young at the time to remember his parents faces. There were numerous photos around the house and in the halls to remind him more and more... But as the years go by their faces in his memory continued to crumble away.

A few hours before he took that mission he and his team and just eating dinner. He could remember... or at least try to think of what had happened last. In retrospect, he and his team finished eating dinner near a running river before continuing past the Kami border... There was talking, the smell of the cool night air, the feeling of apprehension in the air...

After that nothing. No specific memories of what he charged into, or his teammates. He didn't know if there was anything else that happened. Was it a dream, or a sick mind manipulation by a spirit? Everything had been one thing after another, and all he truly desired was to know. What happened to his teammates, or Orochimaru-Sensei? Were they okay? Were they searching for him... or a corpse? The thoughts became terrifying to a point he felt he was going to throw up. Nawaki didn't think he would ever see them again...

This only made him cry more.

Confusion and fear were a bad combination... it only made the matter worse. Especially when you woke up without anyone or anything to talk to. Nawaki gasped when he wiped his tear and noticed his hand was still bandaged. It was wrapped tightly in gauze and stung his nerves whenever he attempted to move his fingers.

The smell in the room hinted there were medicines and unknown chemicals from surgeries...

His eyes snapped open after that realization. Whenever he was with her sister during her studies she would use many chemicals, and during those sessions some that were combined would explode. It would be comical throughout some weeks... While many he wish didn't happen. Recalling one time, one experiment was so bad it blew a hole in the side of his room through everything. Walls, pipes, wires, even his personal safe... Blasted through like it was nothing.

If he found a pair of incompatible sanitizers or anything... He could probably find a way out of this torture room by making a bomb. Even though he didn't remember the names that well, he could try to escape by their smell. It wasn't smart in any way, but it was his way.

He turned his soft brown eyes over to a few of the cupboards above a sink across his room. He got up off the bed and walked toward it. He reached his good hand up and grasped the cold metal of the handle, and pulled it back to reveal hundreds of oddly shaped bottles.

He groaned in defeat. _"This isn't my day. What am I supposed to use here?!"_ He thought idly in his mind.

When it came to playing a sleuth... he was terrible. Academically that it. He reached up for the first plastic bottle and held it in front of his face. His features scrunched up when he saw a jumble of signs he had never seen before. The bottle was clear plastic, with a white cap, and a red and white label. He turned it around and thumbed through the back, and only grew more patient when there were a same mess of squiggly lines.

He studied the back more and more until his face contorted to anger...

... But what he didn't notice since he was angered at the moment was that behind him through the glass window, was a metal bird flying towards the infinity. The Sun cast over the bright silvery white sheet of metal of its side hull, creating a reflection of a flying polished fighter plane through the sky. Nawaki was so enthralled by the deep medicine cabinet he didn't see it fly right by his window. A gleam of light shines right over his bare back and gained a warm feeling to it. This alarmed him since the room was currently 62 degrees. He turned around like a top to see what had brushed against his skin...Yet saw nothing but the calm endless ocean.

The Master Chief had arrived... And not a moment too soon.

**[Infinity/ Loading bay/lower deck]**

The strike fighter speedily glided through the narrow entrance port gracefully balanced. Its flaps then folded back to halt it's speed and the boosters began to die down in power. Gravity took effect as the fighter plane began to descend on the long moving platform. On the platform, Strong magnetic strips brought the strike fighter down abruptly, then continued to move onward the armory bay at a very normal but slow speed.

The strike fighter went into the normal process as it stayed on the platform, and began to ascend upward on an elevator like shaft. A yellow flashing light above the upper deck spun around symmetrically, warning of the appearance. After more than 53 seconds of the sound of pulling systems and gears grinding, the yellow and grey platform halted. The sudden stop of continuous noise caused the room to grow dangerously silent... until.

The cracked glass dome popped off and landed a few feet away. It bent the metal down as it began to crack even more to the point of shattering. John exited out of the strike fighter with a half open book in hand, and placed it back on his belt for the moment. After more than 22 minutes and 31 seconds of reading a good portion of the cluster of pages on the way here, he now had a detailed map of the so called 'Elemental Nation' imprinted in his mind. He had some very powerful and deep thoughts of the information... But he was engrossed to it in a way. Leaders such as the acclaimed "Madara Uchiha" made him sick. This clan..._ Uchiha clan_... was not to be approached... at any time.

Upon entering the strike fighter and his escape from Kirigakure, John wanted nothing more than to get some well deserved sleep. Due to arbitrary reasons, he was unable to do so for a long length of time.

He then walked briskly into the armory and unloaded his weapons. Starting with his Assault rifle, he placed it on the work beach, then his magnum next to it. Next he placed the partially soaked brown hard cover book along with the files clustered up. It nearly covered the dirty workbench from previous repairs and tune ups he had made to his armor and weapons. Now that he was currently unloaded of all his provisions and tools, he needed to remove the damaged armor and take a quick power shower...

He didn't need to be a smart person to know the burns on his chest were lethal. From the intense longing stinging he was experiencing, it wasn't going to end well if left untreated. He distinctly remembered sessions about radiation, and its effect on those who were unprotected. It wasn't safe to be walking around the boy if he had radiation traces on him. Nawaki had gone through almost 3 surgeries and needed to be kept clean at all times...

John didn't stop as he made his way to the circular armor removal unit. He went to the keypad and activated it by pressing the on key, finally the access code. It loaded up for a few seconds and came to life with a flurry of drills and locks. He stepped upwards on the single stair, spread his arms like wings, and let the automated machines do their duty.

After an unspecified amount of minutes of drills and bolts, John stepped out completely bear of his heavy armor. The only problem was at the moment was that the under inner skin suit composed of hydro-static had melted. It was now destroyed and would be complicated to remove now.

John looked down towards his chest and looked at the hardened melted suit. His eyes squinted when he attempted to reach behind him for the smaller magnetic clasps. His fingers brushed against the first one behind the base of his neck. He tugged the back neck piece of it before he heard the clip snap. As he pulled hard down his back, they each released. His back became seem and revealed a few lengthy scars.

Some were very deep... while many were large. He kept his face emotionless as he pulled the skin tight suit down his muscular chest, revealing the large massive circular burn that was deep red. He winced when the skin pulled back a little on the gel and began to bleed slightly. After more than a few more grueling seconds of tearing it down off his epidermis, he finally stepped out of it. John lifted the now destroyed gel suit and took it to a lead lined create on the side of the room. Radiation couldn't go through lead, but since it was already in the air, it was a good place to store it at the moment.

Even though he was as made as the day he was born, he wasn't at all bothered by it. Lifting the lid and revealing a pole of broken down metal parts, john tossed the gel suit in, and shut the lid. John then locked it and prepped for it to be all melted down, and then disposed of properly. Walking over to one of the spare clothing lockers, John unlocked it and grabbed a simple pair of boxers. He slid them on past his thighs and around his waist, and walked toward the glass dome shower in the armory...

**BOOOOOM!**

...Then he heard the sound of a distant explosion.

"What... Was that?" He thought to himself in notion before he grabbed a loaded magnum and clicked off the safety.

"I BET HASHIRAMA-OJISAN COULDN'T DO THAT!" Said a young voice not to far away.

John in the meantime wanted to facepalm... But had other plans to attend to.

* * *

**TO BE CONTINUED...**

**AUTHORS NOTE: Review please.**

**-chao**


	9. From dust we seek truth Part II

**DISCLAIMER/ I don't own Halo or NAruto**

* * *

"_The prospect of going home is very appealing."_

_-Tescumesh_

* * *

Chapter 9: From dust we seek truth Part II

* * *

[Previously, on Part I]

* * *

_BOOOOOM!_

_...Then he heard the sound of a distant explosion._

_"What... Was that?" He thought to himself in notion before he grabbed a loaded magnum and clicked off the safety._

_"I BET HASHIRAMA-OJISAN COULDN'T DO THAT!" Said a young voice not too far away._

_John in the meantime wanted to facepalm... But had other plans to attend to._

* * *

_**XXXXXXX-117-XXXXXXX**_

* * *

Nawaki's brown eyes scanned the long narrow hallway if the mess hall with great worry. It was so big and foreign to him. He was still in his medical nightgown that was scruffed up around the edges and covered in soot. There were a few tears at the very bottom of it. The concoction he created in the medical ward was perfect, and escaping the room had proven easier than he thought. Mixing the chemicals was the easiest part, but thinking of a way to blast through the walls was even harder. He tried moving his fingers but couldn't perform any Ninjutstu at the moment, it was also impossible to mold his chakra since moving his hands and fingers were out of commission.

Which was completely new to him. The bandage on his hand limited motion and proper concentration... It was almost like keeping a tense muscle for so long... The escape had worked... But had scorched him on his sides on his nightgown and feet.

Nawaki still scratched his wrist from time to time from the annoying itch. He had tried to take the bandages off his feeble hand, but cringed a bit by the phantom pain. For many reasons, he decided to leave it on. Reason one was quite simple, it hurt like hell that he didn't know why. Reason 2, whenever he would get hurt with a small bandage, his mom would tell him to leave it on for long periods of time until it was time to bathe.

Or Tsunade since he had small bits of memory recounting his mother. He wondered what he looked like or... _"That's weird."_ He thought.

For some odd reason, it had strangely felt as if he hadn't seen his face or his family in a really... really long time. Almost like he'd died then woken up from a very deep sleep. Like his mind was playing a puzzle on him.

Nawaki picked at his nose with his good hand from the intense thickness in the air. He tucked his toes as he felt the cold floor below his bare feet, and the aching feeling in his leg muscles. It was increasingly cold inside the room. He blew a warm breathe into his mouth and looked around for a possible exit. After he left the massive hole he created through the wall he had looked anywhere for an open window...

But regretted that when he nearly felt his stomach empty at the sight of the near endless drop. It appeared as if the futuristic building was growing straight out of the ocean. The walls were shiny, the smell was out of this world, and the atmosphere was very cold. Some of the things he had seen were hard to describe through his own thinking. He was nearly having a panic attack when his escape plan was failing and the area was scaring him...

_**FLOOOOOOOOOOOM!**_

This however only happened for a moment when he heard something very loud echo throughout the hallways, and nearly giving him a heart attack. Nawaki didn't know where it was coming from, but it sounded almost like an engine being forcibly. After hearing it for more than 2 minutes he went to search for it... but came across the cafeteria instead.

He tried to look at the signs on the ceiling, walls, floors, and anything that appeared relevant... But he was met with a blank mind at the odd white block symbols.

He continued to observe the kitchen and wondered for a short moment if anyone was there. It seemed dumb to have such a gifted city with a food court, but no one around. After walking here for 5 minutes he didn't see a single soul. Whenever you were in a city you had a feeling someone would be there, like an ominous feeling. Nawaki got nothing when spending more than a few seconds in its hallways.

Nawaki thought of physically calling out to someone for help... But he was skeptical of what could happen if he was a prisoner, and he did truly escape... The fear of being taken roughly back by a guard to a filthy dungeon... Or killed.

A low but continuous growl emitted from Nawaki's stomach as he put a hand on it in discomfort. Hunger was like a growing sinkhole in a large populated area... It only got worse as time progressed. Nawaki didn't have the slightest clue how long he was out, and when he had last eaten.

He looked around the lined glass over the kitchen and thought maybe there was some food. Stealing was not one of his most looked upon gifts... But it was worth a shot and he was out of options at this point.

Nawaki walked over to the kitchen and went underneath the side railing. Getting a look inside the kitchen made him nearly gag. Something smelled bad and it was coming right next to him. Letting his senses take control, he saw a cockroach run out from underneath the glass limed counter and scurry across the floor. This made him jump back in surprise and nearly scream. He then gained a tick mark on his head from being easily frightened by it.

He was so famished that he nearly fell sick. This could also be contributed from the fear of being caught and or seen. In the Ninja Academy she was always told about what happened to those who were caught... It was either painful agonizing death, or long and agonizing torture for hours and hours on end. They would take your eyeballs out of their sockets, rip your fingernails out, cut parts of your body off, burn you, break limbs, water board you... Or in some case even worse than that.. By these thoughts clear his mind when his eyes caught a glimpse of something shiny and massive

He looked over to a large metal metal door at the end of the kitchen by the end of the stove. Looking at the long and flat metal, he saw very heavy grease stains around the edges. His bare feet went over the gray tile and near the pots next to the door. "I wonder if there's some food in here... I'm starving." He thought with contempt. Looking at the glass sign next to the door bolted to the wall, his eyes squinted. Again, he was met with the unknown symbols.

"What... I can't read this. It some sort of mumbo..." At this point his stomach growled in disagreement at the unwelcomed thought. _"Oh shut up!"_ His mind yelled to his stomach.

He was getting impatient at this moments and wanted nothing more than to tear that sign from the wall and smash it. He looked at the room in anger... Before looking at the sign some last time and catching something he didn't see before. Underneath the symbols that gave him anxiety, he saw several smaller rows of different types... until he saw writing he recognized almost immediately.

Nawaki squinted his eyes again and slowly began to read the small writing.

_**"Please remember to keep Refrigeration unit at approximately 30 degrees and on that level. Unable to do so will result in either freezer burn/contaminated rations. Which in both cases are hazardous to your health..."**_

Slowly, the gears began to spin in Nawaki's mind as he processed the load of information in his below par intelligence level. Now in retrospect, while he may have made a bomb out of chemicals, he wasn't exactly expecting it to work and be that large of an explosion. He may have a few, now just a few tricks up his sleeve. While he wasn't a sharp-witted like his teammates are...

Speaking of which he wondered if they were here too.

That could wait though... He couldn't process too many things at once. After rethinking of what refrigeration meant... That meant it stored things to eat...

...

...

...

...

...

A REFRIGERATOR WITH LOTS YUMMY FOOD!

Nawaki nearly shouted in joy, but that could wait when he was full. Finally, something looked bright. Observing the massive metal door top to bottom, he saw a ground clasp at the very bottom, holding it in place. He gingerly grasped the cold metal and pulled lightly upward. His struggle was futile at the beginning, but after a couple jiggles the metal connected to the floor popped up through the hole upward. Nawaki then grabbed the handle on the right side and tagged it a bit... And pulled himself into the door by accident...

He pulled again... and again... and yanked on the handle until he felt the muscles in his arm and wrist begin to tire out. His palms were also sweaty, making his hand not be able to get a solid grip on the cold solid handle. His eyes searched around the door to see if he had forgotten any clasps or locks.

He was so in tune for the search that he didn't hear anything happening around him. His hunger got best of his senses that he simply didn't notice the massive sliding doors leading to the inside the food court slowly open with a high hiss.

Nawaki clicked his tongue at the growing aggravation, until he kicked with all his might at the metal plating. His foot exploded in pain as he quickly clutched it and began massaging the burning on his toes. It hurt like hell for those few brief seconds, but the door flew open and smashed against a rack of shelves. Several things fell off the shelves and onto the floor in a massive scatter.

Nawaki let his eyes scan the contents on the floor and assumed it was grub. As he continued to hear the refrigerator's cooling system was met with cold air when it blew coldly against his face and he shivered slightly. He remembered that thin cloth covering his skinny frame was not met for any outwardly conditions. Since he had been out for an uncertain amount of time that could have been weeks, he had lost allot of weight. Any fat that was keeping him warm before was gone now.

He peered his head inside and felt tiny little stings against his face from the intense cold. He wished he had something heavier to wear. Yet one of his wishes was already granted so he couldn't complain now! Safely, he stepped into the freezing fridge and looked at the contents on the floor. Ranging from many yellow paper bags with white packaged labels. These were ignored those and searched around the quite large interior... Yet he still didn't hear the rummaging outside the freezer near the main entry to the kitchen...

Grabbing a piece of cheese off the floor, Nawaki sniffed it trying to pick up any eromas. His lips became slightly moist at the known food... Cheddar cheese. Nawaki quickly unwrapped the see through plastic wrap off of the cheese and threw it beside him onto the floor uncaringly. His hand glided across the smooth and sticky block of cheese before he brought it to his mouth for a bite.

"_Ahem."_

Nawaki froze at the unsuspecting noise. It didn't sound automated like the rooms lights or cooling system, and it didn't sound like anything automated. In fact, it sounded like a living thing had breathed... Something was right behind him from sensing the new presence.

Nawaki tuned quickly, and flinched back in momentary shock of what he saw. When seeing something out of place for the first time or not knowing the intentions of said thing a single thought crosses your mind like a new light: Fear. Standing directly outside the fridge was probably the biggest man he had ever seen! He was so tall that his head went past the upper portion of the door, covering his face. He couldn't perform any ninjutsu, or use any serious Taijutsu in close quarters.

Nawaki took a few steps back cautiously and said...

"Stay back or else I'll kill-

He stopped talking when the giant outside the door leaned down and showed him the rest of his face... or at least what should have been his face. Better yet, the fact he was missing one all together. There was no nose, eyes, ears, mouth, and the complete lack of hair... The giants face was nothing but metal with ridges in all placed, twists, bolts... And the biggest single eye that was pure orange. Nawaki didn't know what he was seeing, but it terrified him. The man reminded him of a deadly man-eating cyclops, or possibly a horrid being that would rip him to shreds without a single thought... Or a guard who discovered him...

Nawaki wanted to run from the oncoming presence, but he looked looked down at the first thing he had, and did what his mind screamed at him.

_Attack._

Looking around for anything solid, he realized he was holding something that could help him.

"SECRET ATTACK: CHEESE OF DOMINATION!" He yelled triumphantly as he hurled the stick of cheese at chief... With little to no success as it flew through the air, and dropped less than a foot away from Nawaki like a rock. He looked down at the cheese before looking back up at chief with a sheepish smile. He was hoping the guard would chuckle or at least go easier on a punishment.

Chief did the same thing by observing the cheese, and only felt like snorting at the horrid attempt to throw. If that was a live grenade and Sergeant Avery Johnson were alive standing here, he would have torn Nawaki a new one then proceed to tell the boy how to properly throw a "Pineapple" as he used to call them.

Nawaki was probably physically getting used to standing up and moving around once again since he had spent most of the last month in a half bed ridden. Nawaki looked quickly for a weapon and grabbed a zucchini off the metal shelf next to him, and held it over his head threateningly like a knife.

"Stay away!" He yelled while beginning to pant from the exhaustion as his arms began to shake. Chief knew this was going to happen the boy was hungry and tired. That wasn't a very good combination when you were so close to death as he was. The damage on him was so gruesome chief was questioning himself if he could save him.

"Nawaki Senju... " The monster said to him in a deep gravely voice making Nawaki stop in his mental tracks. When he was younger he was terrified of the dark, mostly of what lurked in the shadowy corners. Nawaki stopped and stared at the monster with a strange gaze... Before the sound of his own name struck him physically. "How do you know my name?" This was the first thought that nearly split his skull open. Did this thing know him from a different life or-

"It was on your ninja ID." Chief said as he reached for the piece of cheese Nawaki dropped, making Nawaki blink when he remembered he wasn't wearing normal clothes. In hindsight, chief was having indifferent feelings over the situation itself. He was expecting to come back, pick Nawaki up, drop him off secretly at Konoha, then return to the Infinity for further search on this planet. After that it was a mystery to chief. He still remembered though... That name...

"My ID... But how'd I get-

"Accident. Your teacher sent you into a danger zone and you were nearly killed from an explosion." Chief cut him off as he looked down at the boy a few feet away. Nawki in return looked at chief again. "What do you know about my teacher?"

"Orochimaru almost killed you. I saw it." Chief told the boy calmly, while also making sure his M6D magnum loaded with TTR rounds was securely holstered to his right thigh. If Nawaki became hostile, he would knock him out if required to. Chief had to be careful around children in this world since he nearly got his ass handed to him back in Kiri by that one kid. It would be a solid reminder never to underestimate anyone by their size...

OR AGE.

Nawaki looked at the man in armor as if he had grown a second head.

"He... He wouldn't do that! Orochimaru-Sensei is my teacher, he cares for me and taught me how to fight!" Nawaki yelled toward the green giant. Chief breathed deeply at the rather bold move made by the boy. Chief looked at him in silence before before continuing.

"Listen... I know what I saw. Your teacher almost got you killed but I saved you."

"LIAR!" Nawaki roared. "YOU PROBABLY DID THIS TO ME!" He shouted as he raised his hand that was wrapped tightly in bandages"IF I DIDN'T KNOW BETTER YOU WERE TRYING TO ABDUCT ME, MONSTER!" Nawaki looked like he was about to pass out from his footing, but chief quickly explained to the panicking boy.

"If I hadn't wrapped your hand in that... You wouldn't have one at all." Chief said calmly yet coldly to Nawaki. Saving his ass was one thing, but getting yelled about it was another.

"Why?" Nawaki asked with a raised eyebrow, still holding the zucchini over his head making chief mentally shake his head. "Why would some monster save me? All people do in this war is kill each other and steal from everyone." Chief became more enthralled by this statement.

"Its my duty as a soldier.." Chief told the young boy. Nawaki looked at him and asked. "Solider? What's a soldier?"

"Like a Shinobi in a wa-." Chief explained before a very loud rumble emitted from the boy. Nawaki looked down and said sheepishly. "You have any food?"

This kid was just interrogating him and now he was asking him for food...

This kid was too trustworthy...

" Yes." Chief said before starting. "Also... Care to explain the explosion?" Chief questioned with an unamused tone lacing his voice.

Nawaki turned his head in confusion before he turned red as he lowered his arms and twirled his fingers before saying "Um... I had use the bathroom but I couldn't find one, and i- alright you caught me, BUT THE DOOR WAS LOCKED!"

"All you had to do was press the green button next to your bed... I left a message on paper." Chief said making Nawaki flash with anger.

"HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW YOU LEFT A NOTE! I'M SCARED WHEN I WAKE UP IN WITH NO CLOTHES AND MY HAND," he gestured to his bandaged hand "IS ALL WRAPPED UP LIKE A MUMMY! HOW WOULD YOU REACT TO SOMETHING LIKE THIS!?"

"Your overacting." Chief said calmly to the hyperventilating boy. He wasn't in the mood for anything comical whatsoever since he was lacking any type of sleep or rest.

"NO I'M..." Nawaki stopped for a moment before his eyes widened for a brief moment... "Wait... If you found me... Then you found my teammates... Where are they?" He question, while making chief want to tilt his head in confusion

What other teammates?

"Who?" Chief asked Nawaki.

"MY FRIENDS! JIRO AND CHIKA! WHERE ARE THEY!" The ounce easygoing boy became increasingly angry again.

John didn't know who on earth he was talking about... Until he remembered that his ID stated he was part of a team called "Team 3." He must have been with other's during the mission... It made sense and seemed the most logical, plus it said so on his card. The question about his teammates status however, was unknown to him. They were either captured, killed, or both... Children were never looked at differently in the war. If they were the enemy, they would be dropped faster than anyone as they were viewed "weaker" than others.

"You need to calm down..." Chief tried to explain as he stepped forward over the fallen food. Nawaki however threw the zucchini at John, who caught it in reflex.

"Nawaki, I'm warning you. If don't stop acting erratic I will-

"You'll what? KILL ME! I want to know where my friends are!" Nawaki shouted louder with his teeth baring. John tried to think of why Nawaki was having a hard time remembering what had happened the very minute he ran off into battle...

Until he had a small idea of what could have caused this.

"There was no other Konoha ninja with you other than your teacher." Chief said.

"They had to be! I remember them being with me around the fire... then... Then we left after we ate and.. Or was that before- No... It was..." Nawaki kept repeating the same thing over and over while trying desperately to think clearly. _"Why can't I remember!?"_ Nawaki shouted to himself in his mind trying to remember what had happen.

"_Amnesia..." _Chief deduced when seeing Nawaki in this state. Being struck at the base of your skull and rattling your brain could do you in, it could also level your memory down to a few hours prior. The loss of blood could also be a contributor in this case as well. Overall though, Nawaki went through hell and back and lost a good portion of his memory. Chief thought it was better that way though...

Chief formulated a sentence in his brain. He began slowly as he said. "You were the only one there," Chief breathed out before continuing "other than your teacher." Nawaki stared at him "I'm sorry... But your friends were-.

"My friends aren't dead!" Nawaki shouted in denial. "They don't abandon teammates! You don't do that!"

" There was no one there. Everyone around you was Kumo." John talked a bit louder now as he was now growing agitated. "The only one there was Orochimaru, your friends weren't there."

"Why didn't you save them?!" Nawaki yelled at the spartan.

"They. Weren't. There..." Chief uttered coldly to the boy.

Nawaki and him stared at each other until Nawaki looked down and thought of the possibilities. Other kids in his class before were killed during simple retrieval missions... Even though he couldn't remember what had happened to them... He felt like he knew before.

"I... I think I know... If they were around I would- think or something... I just know they're not... Not coming back. I can't think of what... Was happening." Nawaki bit down a sob from escaping his throat. "I failed... Them... And my grandfather... I'll never be Hokage like Hashirama-Oji..." Nawaki uttered the last part to himself solemnly.

Though it was loud enough for John to hear.

"Hashirama..." John muttered in return when he... Remembered the sound of that name... Then the name Madara also sounded related to that name.

_The book._

"Your grandfather was Hashirama?" John questioned to the boy with a sharper tone. Now remembering the name his eyes had glazed over in the Pelican rung a bell... But finding out Nawaki and Hashirama were related was like pulling the pin from a grenade... The last names were too similar right down to the point. Not to mention he was the grandson of a man who had unified all of the warring clans during cycles upon cycles of war. Senju's were known to be extremely famous among the elemental nations from the land of fire, to the land of lightning...

Then there was the rather shady name Madara Uchiha. In the history section of Konoha no sato, there was a single paragraph on the land's history and it's two most prominent clans that committed a truce to merge and bring tranquility. The Senju lead by Hashirama Senju... Then there was Madara who directed the Uchiha's. From what John had studied, he was nothing but a tyrannical maniac hungry for power with his extreme power, the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan. Now John didn't know what that was or what it could do. Nonetheless, it was read to be very... Very menacing and powerful. He was eager to learn more on the "dojutsu", but there wasn't much information on the mystical power. Since the section involving Madara Uchiha was only one paragraph long... 12 sentences to be precise and Chief had a feeling something was missing...

Nawaki didn't look up but instead kept staring at the floor, feeling absolutely guilty from not being there. What Nawaki didn't know was the fact he was currently pumped with some powerful narcotics that were still in his system, which would be affecting his mood drastically based on his situation. Considering he would be in a lot of pain without them now at the moment, but the abrupt changes in his mood would tell.

The mood swings would make him act very depressed at times to the point of baling into tears if given the chance. To very angry if pressed far enough. He was still looking at the floor until a massive pair of black and green boots were caught in his vision near his own feet.

"Nawaki..."

Nawaki still didn't look up and kept his eyes trained to his feet and chief could hear him breathing heavily. "Listen to me..." Chief tried to start amicably, though was finding it difficult to sum up his words. Working with different less understanding people was not a strong point from him since he spent most of his life away from everything in the "normal" category. Having little to no experience with this was almost like defusing a bomb with your teeth. "Are you going to stand in here alone or are you going to come with me?"

"There's nothing left for me... I failed." Nawaki swallowed the last part painfully. "If I was fast-

"Stop it." Chief said roughly. "There was nothing you could do." He continued making Nawaki bite back a groan. "I know it's not easy to go with what you going through..." this time Nawaki looked up at chief with hateful eyes and interrupted him.

"How would you know? How would you feel if your friends died because of_ you!_" Nawaki's shouts bounced off the alloy walls within the freezer. Meanwhile, chief felt a cold staining in his lower throat turn into a burning sensation. The certain example of mentioning how he didn't know what it felt like to be responsible with the death of your teammates was a low blow. Nawaki didn't know though, and he was suffering from major anxiety at the moment.

_"More than you could think."_

"Nawaki... I'm done talking. Let's go." Chief said lowly as he made an attempt to grab Nawaki. Working with this boy was stressful, but in memory, Chief was not much of a big talker either.

But the boy sprung back in defense.

"If your going to sell me off-

"No I won't." Chief claimed.

"Liar! I know how you play your sick games.." Nawaki gaze became conflicted though for a moment before asking seriously. "What the hell are ya anyway? Some type of spirit?"

"I'm human." Chief responded as he began to pick the bags of MRE off the floor before they spoiled.

"A robot?" Nawaki didn't seem to believed what chief was, so he guessed again.

"No." Chief deadpanned.

"A demon?"

"No." Chief breathed tiredly. It would seem _that_ name stuck to him even in _this_ world as well.

"A Youki?" Nawaki said suddenly making chief's mind take a sudden stop.

"A what?"

_Now what on earth was that?_

"Another monster." Nawki answered since he had been given very long lectures involving the race in school.

"No." Chief said. He was really pushing his luck now since chief forced himself not to raise his voice.

"A statue?"

"No." Chief answered with worn out breath.

Now that statement was just plain idiocy to the point.

"..."

"..."

"A-

"Are you going to come with me?" Chief asked finally as he placed the last piece of MRE back onto its shelf. Now that Nawaki was awake, getting him fed was an order, then taking him home was top priority for both of them. Chief didn't have time for a kid running around on the Infinity, not to mention he had a home to return to.

"Why should I come with you? I don't exactly trust you." Nawaki pressed toward the super soldier. John forgot what it was like to be a kid. Many of his thoughts regarding the matter had slipped passed his mind over the numerous decades of war. Living a simple life sounded wrong to him in a certain degree. Time just really seemed to fly.

"Because if you don't you won't ever get back to Konoha." Chief admitted to Nawaki in his same calm tone.

Whatever was going to come from Nawaki stopped dead in his throat. His face went from shocked to livid in a matter of seconds...

Then went to calm once more.. "Why are you helping me?" It wasn't a question; more like a demand.

"..." chief looked at him with the calmest stance... Nawaki looked at chief with defiant eyes and was about to retort. Until chief spoke up. "It's my duty."

"What duty?" Nawaki inquired when he tilted his head. confusingly.

"To follow my designated orders." Chief replied stoically with his hands off to his sides.

"From who?"

"Classified." Chief repeated on what O.N.I ordered him to say whenever unauthorized individuals questioned him regarding on certain parts of information. In the Office of Naval Intelligence, their etiquette was quite simple. If you were in a situation where there was no supervising officer and anyone asked who your superior was, then you were not allowed to reveal anything. John didn't question it but knew the damage of knowing what would happen it Nawaki found out their were no superiors... Just him

"Why's that?" Nawaki said as he rubbed his stomach in pain as it let out another low rumble. Chief noticed this and said. "Eat something first... Then we'll talk." Chief finished and wanted to brush off any information being revealed. In Nawaki's case, ignorance was bliss. The less he knew of anything about John's dilemma then the better. That statement could probably drop onto anyone in particular for this universe. Chief exited the fridge, only to notice Nawaki was still watching his back and not moving from his spot.

"Follow me." Chief as he continued to walk.

_'Uhhh...'_ Nawaki thought since the 7 foot tall man in armor asking it to follow him, before sniffing something that stung his nostrils hard. "What's... That smell..." He said timidly to the man in armor who responded like stone. "Cleaning supplies."

"Oh." Nawaki replied out loud when letting his eyes scan over the food court, before another question tugged his curiosity. "Is there any else here? It's big enough."

"No... I'm all that's left." Chief answered cryptically. "The rest of the crew is dead."

"Died!?" Nawaki exclaimed with widened eyes. What could have killed them was coming first... But the number stood out. "How many?"

"Too many." Chief replied to the young genin. Questions regarding anything on the fatality rate were never going to be revealed.

EVER.

Nawaki looked up at armored giant as the walked toward the door in deep thought. Every crew member dying... To what though? In most cases mass numbers of civilians were dying from famine or disease rolling through the war zones. He didn't want to ask the imposing man in armor since he quite frankly scared the living daylights out of him.

Then a thought crossed at the moment that had been pegging at his mind. "What's your name anyway mister?" He said while stopping.

Chief meanwhile exited out of the kitchen and Nawaki who walked up beside him. "Spartan-117." He said to the boy. Nawaki's nose scrunched up in confusion as he asked. "Spartan...That's a weird name? And what's with the numbers?"

John looked down at him making Nawaki flinch. In reality, it was his number since there were more spartan-II's... Not anymore that is. "Its a ranking system." He said as he gestured to the smoke down the hallway. "Since that room is obliterated. I'll have to move you somewhere else at the time being." Chief walked toward another door by the hallway and opened a new door as it slid slowly carelessly open. Nawaki peeked through the corner of the door and noticed the room looked exactly similar to his old room... Scary he thought.

"Wait here. I'll bring you some clothes and food." The thought of food instantly brightened the young boy's mind and made him feel warmed by the spartans caring nature... In a odd way.

Nawaki idly looked at chief for a second then asked. "So... you're not going to kill me or enslave me?" These were usually what happened to the ninja captured... Most were killed in those predicaments. Also he had this information pounded into his head

"I already said it once." Chief said as he loomed over Nawaki. He wasn't sure what Nawaki was thinking of him now, but he could honestly care less.

"O-kay..." Nawaki said dumbly before he climbed back into the bed. "I'm... Sorry for... Kinda yelling at you... Spartan. I just, I feel scared. I'm afraid." Nawaki admitted to Chief as he faced outside the door. Chief looked back at him before leaving and said.

"Don't be..." With that, chief left the room to get Nawaki a warm meal.

* * *

_**XXXXXXX117XXXXXXX**_

* * *

After a rather... Eventful lunch Nawaki showed his deep appreciation to the aging Spartan the best way he could show it.

"BURP! Thanks! That was the best thing I've eaten all day!" Nawaki shouted as chief steadily took the empty tray and bowl off his lap, and Nawaki had small bit of food on his shirt. Chief had searched through the kitchen and decided not to give Nawaki the dry MRE's and had given Nawaki a bowl of Hearty Turkey soup, with a couple of energy supplements slipped into an orange drink. "Good."Chief replied. After he placed the tray inside a sink across the room, he went back to Nawaki's bedside and said.

"I need to replace your bandages. Let me see your hand." Chief ordered as he took a pair of silver medical scissors out. Nawaki gulped and felt his food not sitting well. "Ummm... Just my bandages?" He questioned, feeling worried at the sight of the small yet pointy medical instrument in the hands of the Spartan.

"Yes." Chief said again. Nawaki nodded before holding his bandaged hand out. In a matter of a minutes,, chief scissored through the bandages Nawaki's hand and revealed diagonal stitching around his wrist and into his flesh. His hand was very pale with it looking pruny, and looked a bit scared on some other places such as a medium sized scratch on his palm. Around the base of his fingers were smaller stitches to add to the rather large collection. Chief brought out a whole new roll of gauze and quickly engulfed Nawaki's hand.

"You don't remember what happened? What happened before you with your teacher?" Chief asked the boy as he rubbed more antibiotics to the boys back.

"No... I remember me and my friends ate dinner, then after that we... left." Nawaki truly didn't remember anything. It was like trying to recite the alphabet backwards while writing your own name down.

"What was your mission? In Kumo?" Chief questioned to the boy since this had been pegging his mind. What on earth would a village send 3 boys to another dangerous are for. In fact why send children at all? Even though John went through programs and dangerous missions as early as 15, he had the proper protection and training. From his point of view the villages were sending inexperienced kids into a warzone. Pure stupidity, was what Chief would define it as.

"A simple B-rank... We were trying to locate a group of ninja that were guarding Kumo since they've been a real pain in the ass lately..." Nawaki answered. Even though he was breaking protocol on telling foreign strangers of konoha business. But he wouldn't remember much on what he told the chief.

"Hmmmm."

"Your human? Right? As in flesh, two eyes, a mouth, and a heart." Nawaki questioned again making chief halt his application.

"Yes." Chief answered the boy.

"This has been bugging me for a couple minutes but... Can I see your face just to be sure?" Nawaki asked as he turned around with a curious gaze over his face.

"What?" Chief asked with a unexpected tone.

The regulations to ONI were quite serious on anything spartan related. From birth dates, names, and more importantly their identity's. He had been seen numerous times by marines, scientists, ODST'S, and other Spartans without his armor but it was clearly stated in the gamma section, page 1,543 subsection 3 article 12 paragraph 7 sentence 46. That any Spartan-II commando who revealed even the slightest ounce of confidential information would be at high risk of prison time. Even though the UNSC weren't around it wouldn't mean he would willingly break an everlasting oath.

"Your face? I just want to know." Nawaki whined. He was more curious than afraid.

"Your fine." Chief waved off as he spun Nawaki around and showed his back, but Nawaki turned around again making chief grumble.

"Oh come on... are you... ugly?" Nawaki asked with a raised eyebrow not really worried that he had insulted Chief. Now most people would pick their words very carefully, but Nawaki was a very dense individual when it came to socializing, and the last person who insulted Chief met their end by the hands of the flood...

"Some say." Chief murmured. ODST's were prone to insulting the Spartans by calling them freaks of nature or a lab experiment. Chief could care less would anyone thought of him, be it negative or positive. He only had a very heavy feeling on insults based to his team members though...

"..."

"..."

"Now can I?"

"No." Chief answered back.

"Man, your such a stick in the mud." Nawaki claimed.

"I know." Chief responded dryly.

"That wasn't really a compliment!" Nawaki exclaimed.

"I don't care."

"_Your fun_." Nawaki responded in his thoughts with sarcasm literally making his sentences slide.

"..." Chief only paid attention to the bandages after this. Nawaki shivered from the cold as he questioned. "Man... Did my hand come off or something?" From seeing all the previous wounds on his hand he actually wondered if it truly did. Only he was asking in a light yet jokeful manner.

"Yes." Chief answered simply to the boy.

...

...

This didn't sit well for the genin.

"WHAT!?" Nawaki screamed while nearly jumping back across the room.

"Shhh." Chief hushed as lightly a he could muster.

"My hand came-

"Stop... Yelling... NOW.." Chief growled at a very low voice that reminded Nawaki of his demon sister when she got_ very_ angry.

"Alright... alright... Geeze..." Nawaki said. "You really scare me ya know, and the only person who does that is my sister." Chief didn't answer as he brought a new roll of medical gauze and began wrapping it around Nawaki's wrist. Nawaki cringed a bit at the phantom pain in his nerves and bit into his lips slightly to distract the strange irritations. Chief noticed this and said.

"Sorry. Reattaching the nerve was...complicated." He admitted before continuing. "I never attempted it before and made it just in time before it was impossible to reattach." Chief said seriously. There were many ways to contribute to a new limb in case Nawaki ever lost it. However, it would be impractical since Chief had no knowledge on operating any cloning machines or prosthetic construction for him. Those degrees belonged to the heavy duty medical surgeons and the UNSC's scientific advisers.

John-117 was neither of them.

"You JUST made it?!" Nawaki aid rather loudly again making chief groan.

"Yes. When you get home you need to keep your wound dry, and keep it warm."

"When... are we leaving?" Nawaki asked in high interest once he heard home. He was thinking he was going to die today and that notion nearly drained him to the point of tears. He was terrified of what he was thinking of what could happen.

"After you get your clothes on, we'll leave." Chief retorted.

"So-are we going there in a boat?" Nawaki asked. He had never gone in a boat accounting that he had never seen the ocean before in his life. Going in one would be fu-

"Not exactly." Chief rebutted with a slight scratch at the end of his voice.

_That was unexpected._

"Then what are we doing?" Nawaki asked.

"You'll be inside a Pelican and I'll get us there.." Chief told him.

"A bird?" Nawaki asked with a raised eyebrow. Pelican were not that big, and he doubted it would hold a 7-foot man in armor along with him.

Chief didn't answer the boys ridiculous question as he stood. Nawaki would find out soon enough and he didn't want to explain the properties of a the construction and statistics of fighter aircraft to him. It wasn't warranted at the moment.

"Get your clothes on and come outside... Its time to take you home." After that he promptly left Nawaki and went outside to wait. As Chief waited patiently outside, he clicked an assault rifle on his back and checked the magnum holstered to his thigh.

Even though there wasn't any type of danger at the moment, some old habits just died hard when he needed a weapon.

The reason he was armed at the moment was the fact he would have to enter a village. An unknown village at that. He was trying to think of where exactly he would drop Nawaki off since the area around Konoha would more than likely be guarded, and anyone seen would more than likely be killed or taken into a jail cell.

Although getting captured was the least of chief's worries since he could escape with ease. The last thing chief wanted was for Nawaki to be injured, and not to mention he wanted Nawaki to be taken directly to his family or his legal guardian. From retrospect that was his older sister, Tsunade Senju.

What he didn't know on the inside of the room was the fact Nawaki was having a heart attack. Not quite literally, but his heart rate was close.

He searched around his pile of clothes that chief carefully stitched back together for something very important, his necklace. That necklace was a priceless family heirloom to him... not to mention it was in fact priceless...

He drummed through every pocket in the pile before finally giving up. Big glomps of salty tears were pouring down his eyes before he called out. "SPARTAN!" There was a moment of silence and the great feeling of emptiness in his chest until chief walked in briskly. "Is there something wrong?"

"Do you know where my necklace is?!" A shrill voice pounded against John's eardrums making him slightly agitated.

"What necklace?" John questioned.

"A green gem necklace, have you seen one? That's my grandfathers necklace!" Nawaki panicked again to the spartan.

"No. When I cleaned you and took off all your equipment I never found one." Chief answered before asking. "What's so special about it?"

"THAT. WAS. MY. GRANDFATHER'S. NECKLACE... Did you take it!?" Nawaki accused him.

"Why would I?" Chief questioned with an unamused tone.

"Do you know who my grandfather was?!" Nawaki roared as he threw a pillow across the room, managing to knock over a table. Chief lightly placed his palm on the handle of his pistol attached to his thigh and warned.

"First calm down, and no but I know of him."

"I need to find it!" Nawaki shouted again as he tore sheets off the bed with great haste.

"There was no necklace... It probably fell off." At this point Nawaki balled his fists to the point his knuckles were chalk white. His eyes clenching until he began to ball.

Chief began to feel very awkward at this moment, absolutely unsure what to do. His instincts told him to leave and or possibly do something drastic to stall the situation. Crying... Was something alien to him. It was an absolute enigma to him. He couldn't recollect it even if he tried. He opened his mouth and said the first thing that came to mind to cease the squalls from Nawaki.

"Nawaki... I'm sorry." Chief said earnestly. He truly did know what it was like to lose a near irreplaceable memento. He had lost a very unforgettable one many years prior, a 21st century quarter. The quarter though was won in a game that had determined John's role in everything. It was later confiscated by ONI agents the day he was kidnapped. After many attempts of trying to reclaim the precious object John gave up... Only to receive it by Mendez the very last time he had seen him. After that John alway kept it around his neck underneath his skinsuit.

"Nawaki, what does the necklace look like?" If the necklace was traceable, John would have to try his hardest.

"It's... It's a green gem on a black string." Nawaki said while trying to calm down, but then sighed suddenly when his thoughts gained a better insight. "You know what... I don't care." He said as it felt like millions of knives were ripping into him. "I won't see it ever again and I just want to go home..." Nawaki breathed out.

Losing things on the mission was unavoidable. If it were tools, limbs, food, or clothes it would either be stolen or forgotten. He acted foolish and this is where it got him. The necklace was probably somewhere in Kumo mixed with the dirt on the ground...

Miles in enemy from being ever found.

"I could try to find it." Chief said, not believing his own words unfortunately. Nawaki only sat on the end of the bed with a distant gaze aimed towards the wall, ignoring the Spartan. Chief didn't know what to do at this point and felt quite awkward. He stood still for a moment longer before concluding "Come out when you're ready."

Nawaki didn't answer as chief quietly left the room and out into the desolate hallway, leaving Nawaki to silently begin to cry...

_Alone..._

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XXXXXXX

(2 hours and 43 minutes later)

XXXXXXX

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After getting the boy inside the Pelican John had to how navigate toward the hidden leaf village. This roughly took 2 hours of carrying numbers, remembering coordinates And trying to keep Nawaki from talking his ear off about how the Pelican flew, what the buttons did, and what they were doing again. Let's just confirm that Chief didn't exactly appreciate curious people asking him questions when he was trying to concentrate.

John had to say he was surprised with the overall construction of the world's geography since it seemed that the continent was one massive one; close to the super continent Pangaea millions of years before on his world. He had learned that the Infinity was currently residing in the farthest corner of the _Kaijuu_ ocean, which in all regards was 800 miles long in radius. Meaning he was extremely far away from any type of civilization It also read in inky kanji of the book that this planet name was indeed called earth which sounded bull to him to no end and constantly banged against his mind making him feel angry. This wasn't _his_ earth and never would be for as long as he was stuck here. NOT EVER...

Looking below to the custom waypoint on the screen, John saw that he was nearly there toward Konoha. Now it was getting their attention while making sure Nawaki stepped inside the village safety with his sister.

John looked beside him and looked down at Nawaki who was too entwined with the sights of the far endless skies. After getting comfortable in the right leather seat he had wanted to press the shiny buttons but after a stern "don't" by the master chief in his deepest tone Nawaki speedily did so.

"Are we there yet?" Nawaki questioned after seeing nothing but puffy clouds and blue skies for 2 hours that was starting to make him impatient.

"Almost." The master chief answered stoically through his helmet's speakers while activating the homing beacon to the infinity, because once Nawaki was gone home he was making a break back towards there. The master chief reached down to lower the acceleration of the engines and began to descend through the chalk clouds like he was parting the Red Sea. On Nawaki's side, he was becoming quite scared of the darkness that consumed the pelican once it became so dark inside and squirmed a bit in his chair. John didn't see this as he exited the clouds and saw his target approaching: Konoha.

The village was one simple word... BIG. Hundreds or thousands of small and large buildings covered a section of the area with an overcasting mountain in the background like a tidal wave at the beach. What caught Johns eye was the 3 faces carved right into the mountainside. He assumed correctly, the face on the far right was the first fire shadow Hashirama Senju who was not only acclaimed for unifying the nations but being one of the only wielders of the wood release. The one in the middle beside him was his brother Tobirama Senju, and the one on the far right who currently held the title of Hokage was Sarutobi Hiruzen.

John grimaced now at the next phase of the plan, something that he wasn't used to doing when dealing with ninja and that was revealing himself to them. Since Nawaki had one living relative John wanted to make sure that he was properly with his family. It was the absolute thing to do.

John slowly descended toward the village closely before flying right above the front gates. Double checking so that he wasn't clipping any of the buildings he opened the engine covers allowing them to sound off at 140 decibels. He smoothly glossed over roofs, chimneys, and many unconventional foundations filled with dozens of people on the pelicans motion scanner.

"What are you doing?" Nawaki asked as John turned the pelican sideways quickly and made Nawaki's stomach churn. "Getting their attention." The Master Chief made sure to turn the Pelican in a full 90 degrees toward the left and kept repeating the process 2 times over one area that he saw for with enough people.

After more than 2 minutes of finding a suitable landing zone, John was left no choice but to take an attempt at landing in front of the enormous green gates that lead into the prosperous village. Letting the engine power off before letting the landing gear touch the solid dirt ground. After turning the engines off by flipping a few switches, the master chief looked over at Nawaki who was nearly jumping with joy, not that he could blame him.

"When I become Hokage I'm going to make you my personal bodyguard! Everyone will respect you much as they will respect me!" Nawaki shouted with such conviction that made chief cringe at how loud his voice boomed in the small cockpit. He just looked back at the small diminutive blundering boy and nodded before standing up crookedly since these Pelican's were standardized for marines; not giant Spartans. He walked steadily toward the back, going through the cockpits doors with Nawaki barely pressing against him with how cramped it was in the dark machine that reeked of various metals and plastics.

As the entered the back troop port that was very dark minus the green light illuminating from the ceiling, John went over to the small opening next to the drop doors in the wall and pressed the green button that began to lower the doors slowly. Walking down the metal path John was greeted by the sight of the dusty terrain ground with soft patches of grass sprouting from the ground, past that it was a near endless forest. Looking to the right in motion he was greeted by the sight of the massive green walls of the door that lead to the inside of Konoha about 45 feet away when it appeared on his HUD. He was not afraid of what was behind the walls... But afraid that the people would harm Nawaki if they didn't recognize him at first. Mass confusion was his enemy at the moment, and he hoped it would stay away.

As soon as this thought occurred within his subconscious four signatures appeared on his scanner suddenly that he had little time to react when he felt hands try to constrict his arms and then felt something push at the pits of his knees. When it registered that there were four men wearing white masks with distinctive designs attacking him he automatically yanked his arms out of their grips like lightning and spun around making the two other assassins be flung across the area as fast as a cheetah running. This did nothing as they all landed on their feet perfectly like cats falling from a tree branch and took a few kunai out. John attempted to grab his pistol from his thigh until he heard Nawaki's yell.

"Wait stop guys it's me! Nawaki Senju, I'm a Genin of Konoha No Sato!" Nawaki shouted while flailing his arms around to gain their attention and not see his friend get killed. Nawaki didn't have much thought of the ANBU besides them being so secretive, but knew they weren't to be taken lightly. The muscles of the gray wearing men tensed when they heard the familiar reminiscing name before one of them said.

"Senju... Is he-

"Yeah... Nawaki senju." Chief cut off while refusing to move from the spot with a hand on his holstered pistols grip with intensity.

"Wait a moment, I must inform Lord third. Keep an eye on this man and take the boy for questioning." One of the masked men said quietly as he quite literally vanished from the spot in a pug of smoke. The Master chief kept his eyes open and listened for the sound of anything distinctive, but was brought out of his thoughts when one of the ninjas attempted to make a grab for Nawaki, but instead reared his hand back when the master chief stepped in front of Nawaki, towering over the shinobi whose head barely reached Chief's shoulders. "Dot touch him," The Master Chief growled in his voice that resembled a low sound.

He didn't know what this man would do and didn't take any chances to find out.

"Spartan it's okay, these guys are ANBU." Nawaki answered with a wave of his hand toward the men.

"ANBU?" Chief turned his head to the boy who nodded.

"Yeah. They're gramp's private organization of nin who do crazy suicide missions." Nawaki answered with that infectious grin like nothing had happened.

The ANBU who stood awkwardly in front of chief then said more seriously. "What are you exactly? I've never seen such a man to carry themselves at your height... Or concealed with such armor." The ANBU commented with a click of his tongue.

In less than the spam of a vocalizing conversation, the giant green doors opened with the wood creaking loudly enough to wake the dead. Chiefs eyes glazed at the growing crack in between the door and saw numerous people standing inside looking through. When the door opened fully it displayed a couple hundreds people along with the sides of stores and shops on the stretching dirt roads that seemed to go on forever as far as the eye could see.

Chief felt his back tense when a shorter aging man stepped forward from the crowd and said in a voice that reminded chief of his drill instructors as a boy on Reach. "You're trespassing and my ANBU tell me you have someone that's a hidden leaf-nin. Is this notion true stranger?" Chief looked over the old man dressed in a white and red coat and noted lightly that even though he looked easily in hi 40's he carried some type of hidden deadliness... John had some strange running thought come crash in his mind reminding him to remember this man.

"Who're you?" Chief questioned while Nawaki expertly hid behind his thick armored thigh with a suppressed laugh just barely escaping his mouth. He was so happy to be home at the moment that he decided that a prank was in order for everyone. Coming back from the dead? He would love to see someone top that trick!

"You're speaking to The Hokage of the hidden leaf! Show some respect!" The ANBU roared at Chief's visor with momentary adrenaline. Chief turned his head downward meeting the ANBU's gaze. Now in the many months of ANBU training it ranges from mental training from being worked under pressure to being exposed to your worst nightmares at the same time for weeks on end. After that physical fitness was required and only the best of the best were picked to move on toward the next stage. Lastly, it was who would be made into the program with one final training routine that truly pushed human endurance to the fullest. It was a secret and would change periodically every few years so new recruits who are tempted to find out won't be able to question past members who were willing to breach protocol. After that, a psychiatric evaluation would be taken for those men and women seeing if any of them cracked under training and whoever scored the highest would become an established ANBU member.

But the ANBU operative simply known as hummingbird felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up slightly and sweat run down his armpits, feeling like a small insect when looking up at the green giant whose body language read death at an instant notice._ "Maybe pissing off a 7 foot man in armor wasn't exactly the smartest move."_ Hummingbird thought, getting ready to defend himself if he needed to.

"Hummingbird! Return to your post while I speak to whoever this man is." Sarutobi said when he heard a small breeze push his brown graying hair back. Looking at the "man" in what appeared to be armor he couldn't decide whether what he was seeing was some sort of summons with the amount of metal being carried on this man. He saw the stature and knew this man seemed to be carrying something with how sturdy his posture seemed and what really caught Hiruzen off was the single orange eye on the man's mask. Even with his trained vision that had become enhanced by so many years of secret missions he couldn't see any weak points on this man's armor. To Hiruzen Sarutobi, god of shinobi, this green giant was an absolute mystery.

"IT'S SPARTAN!" A loud high pitched voice shouted making Hiruzen's old eyes widen displaying his full iris at the familiar tone...

It couldn't be-

Nawaki then stepped out from behind chiefs legs and waved toward the crowd, most specifically the aging god of shinobi who felt his heart stop at the sight of one of his pupils siblings who alive and well. Although it took a full 2 seconds to register in his mind. "HI JIJI!"

The sound of glass breaking could be heard for miles at how quite it became.

Hiruzens pipe slipped from his lips and fell to the ground before his voice nearly pitched. "N-Nawaki... Is that you my boy?!" If he could be happier he would. The boy looked thinner and a tad bit colorless on his skin tone. But other than that he looked the exact same way.

"The one and only! And this is my friend Spartan-117, he saved my life and took care of me so I can come back here... Home."

Some members of the crowd didn't know what was going on but were enthrall ed by the massive piece of machinery that had flown over the village like a screaming metal bird. Shock and panic ran through when it kept circling over the market district but soon lifted when it left but appeared outside with probably the biggest man they had ever seen.

"What is the meaning of this!" Hiruzen shouted loudly toward the spartan who looked his direction and said.

"He almost died." He admitted. "I rescued him." Chief said to the litter of men and woman who had a hard time hearing what he was claiming, and thought this man was some sort of illusion since the size of men never surpassed 7 feet tall.

"It could be a trick Hokage-sama," One older woman behind Hiruzen spoke solemnly. The woman was old with gray hair tied in a twin bun Japanese styled with a hair pin going through it and attached to it were two pearls. She wore a long white kimono, a jacket and around her waist was a single dark sash. This woman was Koharu Utatane, one of Hiruzens oldest teammates and also part of the Konoha civilian council. "This thing, a samurai perhaps made a genjetsu of the boy... A good one. " She breathed out silently enough for him to hear.

"I don't think so...Why would he help a child? Why would you Spartan?!" Hiruzen called out to him.

"It was the right thing to do." The Chief replied toward Hiruzen loud enough. Some of the crowd began speaking to the Spartan and murmuring questions.

"Hey... It's Nawaki!"

"What is that thing standing behind him?"

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Hiruzen said very loudly, silencing the crowd behind him almost instantly. His two pupils Jiraiya and Orochimaru were no where to be found and that left one other question in his expanded mind.

_"But where's Tsunade?"_ Hiruzen asked in his mind.

What he didn't know was that someone rushed passes him and ran towards the two. It happened so quick at that moment that he never saw it but felt the wind nearly knocked out of him. The aging god of shinobi trained his vision and a blur of blew, next to that he saw a bundle of famliar f blond hair whipping past him and the scent of vanilla filled his nostrils...

_Tsunade._

Chief saw it at first, but a young blond haired woman with exceptionally large hazel eyes, and creme colored skin came forward very quickly. She was wearing a white shirt cut off at a over her belly button with a blue sleeved coat that cut off just over her wrists. Around her feminine legs was a short red skirt connected by two straps on the right side and for some reason she was wearing some sort of dark fishnets underneath that stopped at her knees and at her feet she was wearing a pair of standard shinobi sandals.

Chief's eyes narrowed along with his body and he tensed at the woman's quick pace towards them almost erratically, and he could also see something shine on her cheeks and leave trails.

When looking again he saw...

Tears in her eyes?

Before he knew it Nawaki yelled "Tsuna-Nisan!"

Loudly before bolting towards her like a shooting star with his arms outstretched and got crushed in a hug by his sister with his head deep within her bosom. Tsunade rubbed her head affectionately on Nawaki's light brown hair before kissing him repeatedly on his head muttering softy to him "It's okay" or "Where were you!?" The last one sounded forced but Chief couldn't blame them. Chief watched as the two siblings held into each other tightly as if they were going to be ripped apart.

As the Chief watched the two cry softly onto each other he felt a slight warmness wash over his chest and felt the side of his eyebrows curl beneath his helmet from the warm affection being displayed. It felt as if the weight f holding onto Nawaki had been lifted and his job was done now. After feeling like he overstayed his welcome he began to back up slowly and retract toward the drop doors of the pelican. Before he actually stepped on the doors his name was called out.

"Spartan!" It was Nawaki's voice although higher for some reason. He looked toward the two and saw Nawaki had some dry tear stains glassing his cheeks and held onto something proudly tied to a string clutches in his good hand. On the end of the string was a small metal clasp ring going through a dark green gem shard.

"It my necklace! Tsunade-nisan had it this entire time!" He said as proudly as he could muster with his teeth showing in a full grin that should have ripped his cheeks. Chief felt a small nearly inaudible chuckle escape from his lips. "That's good Nawaki..." He started but stopped suddenly. What was this feeling he was having now? A small pain of sadness perhaps? He shoved it down and said. "But I have to go now... My missions not over yet." If the saddest look anyone could muster could kill, than the expression Nawaki casted at Chief would have killed him a million times over.

"I don't think so spartan. You can't just leave without explaining what you are. I'm afraid you'll have to come with me." The ANBU said from the tree branch above him. Chief brows scrunched up before he saw someone coming over toward them and he recognized the man as the Hokage.

"That won't be necessary hummingbird, since he doesn't have any ill intention towards us of Nawaki we don't need any more trouble," he looked at chief's helmeted face with a stretched gaze,"don't you spartan-san?"

Chief simply shook his head without answering.

Almost like he was walking on thin ice at the moment and anything said in the wrong way would be bad from here on out.

"Then that is all. If he can bring back one of our own... I can have assurance he won't be committing anything harmful." Hiruzen said making the ANBU halt their actions and Hummingbird catch his breath in his throat.

"B-B-B... Yes Hokage-Sama..." The defeated ANBU finished as he left the trees.

The master chief looked toward Nawaki and Tsunade and saw Nawaki had a small look of discern but the total look of gratitude shining down brightly in him. Chief was then alerted that his sister stepped forward towards him and began approaching him with a full brisk walk. He looked per her features and notes that her eyes were quite big with the color of hazel, not to mention a lilac colored gem on her forehead that caught his attention as well. The master chief stood like a statue as the woman came within 2 feet of him and stopped. Just barely touching his imposing scratched forest green chest plate littered with smaller shrapnel marks. Chief turned his head down toward the woman who stood in-front of him sniffling before attempting to say "Are you alr-

And she wrapped both arms around him in a hug!

Tsunade had been in a restaurant with Dan when she heard loud yells coming from outside. Exiting the building with her boyfriend they were both stupefied when they saw one of the largest birds circling over the market district, almost like a vulture who was about ready to devour it's dying prey. Now when Tsunade was given the task of getting a summons she had seen dragons, tigers, hawks, giant bears, humongous insects like spiders or beetles to massive ocean beasts. But out of all the summoning options she picked the slug Katsuyu for her illustrious healing chakra techniques.

Back to what previously occurred, after watching the massive bird circle above they decided to follow it which lead them outside toward the gate. Now rummaging through the thick crowd she tried to see over the numerous heads gazing at the giant metal bird. It was quite difficult as she lost Dan along the way in but heard a very similar voice shout "IT's SPARTAN!" at the top of it's lungs that went over her senses like a bucket of ice water in an instant. She thought she was just hearing things, but now more than ever her curiosity bit into her to see whatever had made that sound similar to someone she knew. As she trekked through the sea of bodies closing in on her she saw three things more clearly. One, she saw the biggest piece of metal ever that had two wings, a single glass window on the front with numerous markings on it, and that didn't quite make sense in her brain. Two, she saw one of the biggest men standing there with armor that looked fit for any hard earned warrior, which gave her a negative feeling towards him. Third... Was her brother long lost claimed to be deceased brother.

When she was speaking to Nawaki he kept saying over and over again that "He Saved me... He saved me." Like a strong echo bouncing off the walls in a desolate cave. All her thoughts before of the Spartan changed at that moment then and there. She saw him as a knight, savior, a saint, anything that represented hope he had become in that very instant... When she got up she did the only sensible thing to do: Hug him.

The very first feeling John-117 had ever felt was the reminiscing feeling of his warm solace of his mother's grasp, but that was nearly a lifetime ago when his childhood was in full swing and this felt shocking yet so off at the same time. Tsunade hugged the Master Chief tightly for what seemed like forever as hundreds of civilians watched with smiles and some shocked expressions before she stood back, looked dead into his visor and said the first thing that could clearly come to her mind at the moment.

"Thank you, so much Spartan." Tsuande than resumaed another hug wrapping her arms around Chiefs neck, making him tense up.

If Chief could say anything in return he would, but couldn't at the moment from the feeling of something he had never ever experienced in more than a lifetime in fighting. The only thing that wanted to wrap anything around him was the flood jaws and devour him.

Tsunade slowly retreated from hugging the super solider before holding a fist out toward Chief. Chief didn't know what this meant but took it as a sign of handshaking. After he lifted his hand up to hers and it slowly linked with his, and before he knew it he felt setting press hard into his palm. Disconnecting his flies hand from hers he found a green rock sitting in his palm. His eyes scanned it for a second before he looked back at Tsunade who whose eyes were halfway open looking radiant and she said. "Nawaki wanted you to have this... He said without you he wouldn't have made it back home. Please take it... You deserve it." She said with a voice that sounded absolutely happy. Truly happy and relived.

This truly felt spontaneous. Here was this nearly broken woman from just a few minutes ago, and here was the necklace this boy nearly broke down to when he thought he lost it, but now was being given it just like that... He truly didn't know how to react but wanted to walk away. The feeling of being looked at from all sides was unnerving and for just a moment... He thought he saw a flood spore behind.

Chief slowly clutched the necklace in his hand as he looked back at Tsunade before saying lowly. "Thanks." And nodding in confirmation. Tsunade nodded before saying as she looked up into Chief's visor, "Thank you... So much.. I mean thank you" With all the relief she could sum up, before walking slowly back to Nawaki who hung around her waist warmly and she hugged back. So many things were happening all at the same moment that it took as much time to process out, but she knew her brother would never want him to leave again. Chief looked down at the green necklace and felt someone, or everyone staring at him. He took one last look at the third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi who nodded in his direction, before Chief returned it and entered the pelicans doors. He sat inside the cockpit, started up the engines loudly as they took him off the ground making the trees and people in front of him shrink out of vision...

His eyes blinked once as he stood in front of the prof village.

Then he flew off in the opposite direction like an arrow... Not knowing what to do next...

...

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**AUTHORS NOTE:** **A revised version friends... The story is back in full swing! If you have any questions feel free to ask.**

**-Chao**


	10. Time goes by for some

**AUTHORS NOTE: This stories has been canceled and I left a long note below to explain why... Please read it.**

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**APRIL FOOLS! **

**HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! Just kidding you guys and gals. BUT THIS IS AN ACTUAL CHAPTER!**

**Hmmmm...Only 17 reviews last chapter, are you guys holding out on me because this story doesn't write itself ya know? But still at least I'm getting somewhere and this story would be nothing without you.**

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**DISCLAIMER/ I don't own Halo or Naruto**

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_"I've learned that people will forget what you've said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."_

_-Mayo Angelou_

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Chapter 10: Time goes by for _some_

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**[Sometime later]**

**(DATE/June?)**

John who sat at the main navigation port control room glared at the blue holographic map of "earth" above him and resisted the urge to smash the screen that had been giving him the same answer for a multitude of minutes. Growling again he rapidly typed on the keyboard with a small bead of sweat running down from his now longer brown hair that went just above his forehead toward his eyebrow that was scrunched up.

It had been 3 months and 27 days since the day he returned Nawaki home in Konoha and began to study this planet's terrain more and more through the use of many mini portable Spy drones that he had discovered in the lower portions of the Infinities engendering room.

When searching for a welding power tool to repair his helmet's side view he had found 4 of them locked up and wired shut. But after some "physical" measures he was able to find more than 40 of them. They were about the size of a football in the shape of a plane with two side wings with a small camera on the very bottom and only the lens being visible beside the small portable rocket engine on the very back.

Activating them was pretty easy since it was on the right lens with "Health Warnings" of not being directly in front of the camera when it snapped, otherwise you would be at risk for radiation poisoning.

Priming them though for launch was the difficult part since he didn't know how to properly construct them and reroute their internal drives. After more than 4 agonizing days or rummaging through thousands of booklets and data pads memories cards for the data, he stumbled across it finally and successfully primed it..

Properly guiding them over this world was pretty hard since once they took flight, they could take more than a thousand images in 100 degrees and convert them into a video in less than 10 seconds. Programming the self-guiding system was almost like a jigsaw puzzle of imputing numerous codes and orders.

Next was finding a launch site that would be suitable for the spy drone, which was simple since the Infinity had numerous openings to massive gap down the center of the hundreds of openings across it when the plates were ripped when entering the atmosphere. Speaking of entering the atmosphere John was able to fully witness the video replay of entering this world many months prior.

Almost like the heavens falling it was quite a sight to behold of watching the tons of metal hit the ocean like a cannonball nonstop. Chief went to the very tip of the Infinities bow that was pointed toward the Hidden mist village.

He launched 5 of them at the time since he didn't want them to become lost or possibly stolen, but he felt satisfied when they took off over the ocean into different parts unknown.

Currently the exceptionally tired John sat bare of his armor wearing a tight white UNSC shirt and a pair of black sweats that hung on his frame tightly to the point they looked as if the would rip at the seams. Let's just say washing clothes wasn't his strongest suit after he learned how to disassemble assault rifles, tanks, Mjolnir schematics, mines, and was starting to begin operating plasma weaponry toward his arsenal._ Not work washing machines._ Although the 2nd attempt to repair it was successful... In a way.

He nearly ripped his hair out of his scalp in frustration but instead slammed a scarred fist on the plastic built-in keyboard, smashing it in half, making hundreds of keys fly like stray bullets everywhere. He sat there for a few minutes before groaning softly at the mess he had just mad. The reason for his minor distress or major in his case was the disappearance of the flying camera.

For the past few weeks while being isolated on the Infinity the spy cams had covered more than 1 million miles across land, air, and sea running on nothing but solar energy which had become a better fuel source and had documented more than trillion of shots over numerous small chains of islands around the Kanashi Ocean, villages across the borders which all had different customs, secluded temples, and hundreds if not thousands of people in those areas on the motion tracking scanners.

Consequently though one had disappeared somewhere over the west. John didn't know how or when exactly, but one of the cameras had been knocked out in mid-flight losing all type of transmission readings and it became strange to John in a way when he tried rebooting it. He didn't know why, but losing one of those cameras was important even though he had a plethora of them at his disposal. Losing one was essential to his survival and he needed to get it back immediately.

John had also had his fair share of the war after seeing the amount of devastation it had committed to the world by numerous lands. One of his camera's had located one village called "TSUKIGAKURE" after comparing it to the map in the _**THE ELEMENTAL NATIONS/ GEOGRAPHICAL FACTS AND HISTORY**_, and watched as the village be ransacked by multiple men wearing Amegakure headbands while killing any oppressing moon shinobi while taking civilians prisoner. Chief had scanned the book cover to cover, taking mental photo's of each of the villages insignia's and identifying who he was watching who kill who.

That wasn't the only one though since Chief had watched multiple villages go down in flames or be decimated beyond repair, hundreds of shinobi (mostly civilians though) were being slaughtered by any means necessary and captured to be turned into prisoners of war, but in the length it was covering though, Chief truly saw that it was indeed a world war.

He didn't know why though, but after seeing the amounts of conflicted bloodshed he detected a small obligation of joining as it went through his mind every now and then from time to time.

However something that he didn't know how to perceive but could described it as the _halting logic idea_ stopped his desire to join the war every single time, instantly eliminating the thought of partaking into it. Even though he had no business in it he felt a rope trying to pull him in and it was beginning to work slowly at seeing the numerous swords clash, the excessive explosions caused by explosive tags that rocked the villages foundations, the blood being spilled upon the ground, the screams of horror and yells of anguish from the ninja, and the compulsive combat in close quarters...

This is were he felt like he belonged, for one short period of time he felt he was needed there, out there in the battlefield while trying to find a way off this planet. Every now and then between hours of exploring the downed super warship John would go up to the top deck and stare across the moving glass ocean with the feeling of the sun's rays on his face and the smell of salt in his nostrils, contempting him of it's stable yet alluring beauty.

The Master Chief never paid much attention to area's surroundings unless it was part of the missions objective first hand, but something about this planet besides everything appearing as an animated illustration caught his eye's attention every now and then, this was when he realized this was the reality he was in. And it was possibly hopeless to ever return home, but the burning sensation in the back of his mind of pure indignation kept that false hope alive like the flames of the sun.

Chief stood up fully cracking his back, triggering multiple bones to release some tension. But not much at the numerous level of anxiety he was experiencing, which he didn't know why, but he felt very tired too with not getting enough sleep for the past few days. He didn't want to sleep though and he didn't need it.

It could also be mentioned his eyes were bloodshot and his skin tone was noticeably lighter as well since all he wanted was to get home.

_He_ wanted home.

He _wanted_ Didact.

He wanted _revenge._

But finding a way off... Or out of this damned universe would be a miracle.

Chief looked over the cold room filled with hundreds of data screens rolling numerous statistical material information before he proceeded over to the double doors and letting them slide open for him to exit. After entering the outside and walking in the hallway he felt something cold garb into his shoulder in a grip so tight that his shoulder felt like it would begin to bleed.

Then he felt something even colder brush against his skin like ice before an ear splitting shriek rang in his head like a thousand bombs exploding simultaneously. Every fiber within him jumped like fireworks as his arm's sprung up and tried to grab onto anything for a weapon when he felt something smash into his back and it stung his scars. Chief ignored the pain and grabbed into a table with books on it before flinging it whims him with one hand and seeing something that made his brain stop.

Standing only 8 feet away in the cold hallway was a woman who appeared naked and was crimson, almost glowing in a sort of way with numerous numbers and data frequencies running up and down her body like snakes. Her face was something that made John want to yell in freight but his mouth stayed shut as tight as an air lock. When the woman looked into his direction-

It was Cortana.

But yet... It wasn't at all. When his eyes scanned the wraith like being before him his mind kept arguing with itself trying to process the eidolon thing...

It was... And it wasn't Cortana.

It wasn't Cortana.

Chief didn't know which!

She looked mad with a grin that made Chief clutch his fist tightly at the sight of her, something painful occurred in the back of his throat when he looked at her eyes that were pure white, shining like two far away stars in the sky. Her fingers were now pointed at an end like knives's tipped edged. Her hair that used to be combed softly with her bangs cropping her face now looked wild and unkempt like a feral animal. John couldn't say anything at what he was seeing but wanted to know what she was doing-

He had to jump back in surprise defense when the red Cortana that looked absolutely fiendish with nothing but pain opened her mouth with her jaw splitting at the sides and roared at him with a sound mixed with her angelic voice and the sound of misery's hellish gates flourishing the cramped hallway. Making the skin on John's arm have goosebumps at how cold it suddenly became..

John had time to react when she ran at him with wobbly legs like a drunken sailor but he couldn't do much but stare at her and wonder in bewilderment at what on earth had brought her before him in such a state. When she sprung forward her elongated yet pointed fingers slashed at him, but he raised his bare forearms up in defense but regretted it when he felt everything on his arms burn like hell. As if he had just dipped them in boiling water while dipping them in salt to ease the pain but made it worse. He seethed his teeth in slight discomfort at the burning sensation that seemed to scald his arms and he jabbed his hand in a tight fist forward, catching the crimson Cortana in the collar bone but he all he under his knuckles when his fist touched her was the non existent texture of air as if he had struck nothing.

He had to roll back when she attempted to pounce on him like a panther, but due to the close proximity she was and how confined the hallway was he didn't have much room he accidentally and quite sloppily smashed into the wall below a window. When he tried to stand up he felt something snake around his neck and begin to squeeze making his breath get caught and his eyes nearly pop out of his head. John stood up and tried to shake the crimson Cortana off but she only dug her nails that felt like scorching iron rods deeper into his back.

John yelled when he threw himself backwards and smashed the crimson cortana into the ground making her shriek in his ear and nearly puncture his ear drum. His arms went wild when his hands clutched at the neck of his old friend now attack and yanked her forward before slamming her in a wall.

John reared a fist back and punched forward before grunting in pain. Suddenly everything seemed to click in his brain and the invisible weigh on his shoulders vanished. He looked over to where he just stuck and saw that he heavily cracked one of the reinforced windows with his knuckles that were now beginning to bleed. The medium sized pain kicked in and he retracted his fist, seeing some small shards stuck in quite deep. His eyes blinked rapidly and soon his world came crashing down when he felt his stomach churn forward and felt something run up his throat from his stomach suddenly and his rain shut off for a moment.

Throwing his head to the side and bending over warm bile escaped his mouth and spilled onto the floor with a splat and he began coughing his lungs out while trying to asses himself that it wasn't real over and over again. Trying desperately to get the sounds of Cortana's screams out of his head and trying to forget the image of her grin that stung him.

After more than 2 minute the Petty officer wiped his mouth and looked at his forearms and saw they were bleeding as well with the blood in the early stages of clotting. Feeling as if the world was going to quickly around him he began to walk fast down the hall and to the armory with his face resembling a furious rhino about to maul someone...

XXXXXXX

(121 minutes later)

XXXXXXX

After several detailed hours of wandering the Infinities armory, looking for anything useful John had located numerous data pads with very light characteristics of his MJOLNIR mark VI. Although most of data pads diagrams and graphs appeared as gibberish to him with his above average mathematical intelligence and weapon development skills.

While he was given a general education conspiring of general math, basic English, human history, human anatomy, along with many smaller subjects, but he would never truly master the highly advanced construction of such items, and that being the overall development of the mjolnir armor.

Although he was able to add attachments that took hours upon hours.

John who now wore his armor looked down at his orange visor with the creases in the reinforced glass that shimmered over the corners under the lights above him. Brushing a gloved hand over his orange glistening visor he turned the helmet around and placed it over his head and bolting it into place with his HUD activating. When he moved his arms to get the feeling of his suit, he could suddenly feel the numbing pain deep in his forearms surge like lightning to an electric rod but ignored it.

Shifting the major weight adjustment to his back he paced in a circle, getting a feeling of the area and to ease his nerves. He had altered the ammunition port on his back of the armor's holding reserve system by improving the length. For example, he used to only hold 256 rounds with the MA5D assault rifle, but now he improved it all the way up to 1600 rounds. The only major downside though was now that he carried 1,344 more rounds for an assault rifle his back was 128 pounds heavier from the behind and this was bad since it could very well slow him down if he wasn't careful when advancing in other directions or being on the offense.

Next, he had also implemented the use of a new armor capability which the helmets mainframe can support a larger motion sensor with heat signatures. Originally, the motion tracker was only able to reach up to 80 meters in radius, now it could go up to 120 meters.

Thirdly, Chief added another component that would improve the speed of how quickly he could take a weapon off the clip. Before there was the magnetic strips that held onto his weapons by being placed at very specific places on his body from his back and thighs. After discovering a secret compartment in the Armories back room codenamed "QUICK GRIP" across the box.

Chief learned that it was magnetic strips that could be applied to the palms of his gloves. Once it was installed it would have the weapon fly right into his hand at will when held directly over it. This would cancel out the magnetic on his body and activate the one on his hand, making the weapon stay put in his hand, and once he was finished with his weapon all he would have to do is put it right back and the magnet would deactivate.

When he grabbed for the MA5D assault rifle from the workbench that had been cleaned thoroughly, he turned the safety on and clipped it on his back before looking over the selections of weapons at his disposal currently.

On the very end of the table was a Asymmetric Recoilless Carbine-920 leaning against the wall, next to that was the Weapon/Anti-Vehicle Model 6 Grindell/Galilean Nonlinear Rifle (M6 G/GNR) or better known as a SPARTAN LASER that needed a new cooling system to be inserted which would take a couple of minutes, next was a pair of M739 Light Machine Guns that shined under the lights rays after being cleaned.

Beside that was a M363 Remote Projectile Detonator (M363 RPD) also called the "STICKY DETONATOR" that had been amped up to hold a larger kill radius from 3.75 meters to a whole 5.85 meters. The splash damage up to 8.05 meters by enhancing the explosives and the outer splash damage 8.75 meters to 10 meters.

Chief bent down to pull a lockbox out from underneath the table and placed it on top before flipping the lid, showing multiple 120mm magnetic explosive device ammunition before taking one by one out and strapping them across his waist from front to back. All in all he was currently carrying 16 120mm magnetic explosives while making sure the were strapped on tightly by giving each one a good jerk.

Feeling like the Infinity was becoming too cramped for the time being he decided over the last incident to try and locate that missing spy drone that had vanished over the western part of Earth. When looking into the book containing all the information and cross analyzing the land the place was simply known as Kaze No Kuni but translated into The land of Wind.

Chief didn't forget the abnormal name for a country since each country or better yet each village, town, temple,district, shopping stand or better yet city had it's own unique name with a near endless list.

He grabbed the M363 Remote Projectile Detonator (M363 RPD) and placed it on his thigh as he walked over to the launching bay he stepped down the flight of spiral stairs and walked briskly past a damaged AV-14 Hornet and toward a AC-220 Vulture that had been unused but had to have the left engine port of it's wing disassembled than repaired after being damaged. It had been one of the least damaged aircrafts in the hangar bay and one of the most fully operation one currently at the moment. After flipping the head window up and climbing inside the one-man cockpit he shuffled lightly in the small seat. At that moment he made it note that he would have to enhance the size capacity of the cockpit for the heavy assault unit.

Once his hand closed the front window he activated the engines, mapping system, cooling system, then finally unlocking the armaments ranging from the dual GUA-23/AW/Linkless Feed autocannons, the Argent V missile, and the A-74 Sylver Vertical Missiles since he felt he was entering a war zone and would need it for his long journey to locate the spy drone. After looking toward his hands the numbing sensation in his arms rung a bit when he moved but he pushed it far from his mind but couldn't drop the image of Cortana's remorseless expression that he witnessed earlier...

When the Vultures frame began to pull up from the floor when the ducted fans in the rear engines spun like a blur, it then slowly began to move forward through the tight hangar bay. Chief firmly guided the oversized gunship as it finally exited outside the chamber. The weather that day was cool, around the mid 70's with high winds pointed in the direction he was headed for.

Ever so slowly he rose above the Infinity and gazed at the endless ocean and couldn't help but feel amazed at the length of this earth since over the cameras calculations this planet was 16.2 times bigger than the original planet earth. That was truly mind-boggling in his opinion since when the very first time he visited earth it was like any ordinary massive planet in the solar system, but thinking of an earth that was 16.2 time's bigger was like seeing the earth almost the size of jupiter. Only problem was is that Jupiter was 11.2 times bigger!

Chief looked on the stretched mapping system on the upper left corner that signaled and hummed each time the transmitting beacon did a surround frequency. John pressed a button on the top left corner that made a waypoint toward his destination and signaled all following drones to return. On the mapping systems it revealed that Spy drone No. 1 was currently over Snow country due to the coordinates, Spy drone No.2 was presiding over The land of Tea, and Spy drone No. 3 was returning to the Infinity after looking over the Land Of Iron...

The small nearly invisible jet engines began to push the Vulture until he sped up onward and soon carried onward at a pace of almost 320 mph, racing over the rushing waves far below, and while Chief guided the oversized ship he ambiguously thought about who and _what_ he would see battle this time in the Land Of Wind... Unaware of what he was about to find.

XXXXXXX

(Elsewhere)

XXXXXXX

Deep in his office next to to Hiruzen's, the scarred warhawk Danzo Shimura scowled at the reports coming from Konoha shinobi out on the lines of Takigakure. Still, as of 4 months ago had not one of his professional trackers from the Inuzuka clan been able to locate the one known as Spartan-117. Finding him was important to Danzo for a few reasons.

Reason one was that he himself never saw him since he was at a war meeting between clan heads. Danzo had missed seeing the man face to face, but wished he had with all the stories going around the ANBU units.

Reason 2 was while the Spartan's abilities were unknown to most of the elemental nations, it was apparent that he wasn't someone to take lightly. There were small reports spurring mostly around Kirigakure about a 7 foot tall green man with a massive orange eye that launched an assault on the Mizukage... And left the Mizukage quite literally _disarmed _by making him lose it. Along with numerous top Kiri shinobi dead and many more injured.

He, or the Spartan had shown a vast array of technology that were so advanced from theirs that he even had a machine that could fly like a bird! At first he didn't believe this and had a harder time believing it when Hiruzen had told him personally. This was from accounts of a multitude of people walking the streets that day in the market district who witnessed it firsthand...

Danzo was many things. Curious was one of them.

Overly protective... _Well_ that's another story.

Once he had heard that the spartan returned Nawaki and just left without a word he was a bit mistrustful at the giant.

He felt like berating his former for letting such an asset slip right through his fingers on such short notice. This man with what he could do more than likely give Konoha an edge in the war and possibly win. Although it was unsure to say if the Spartan was friend or foe... Even though he returned Nawaki Senju, it didn't explain why he did though.

Most people who came across a dying boy would simply leave the boy to perish during these times for self reasons.

It left Danzo thinking of whether the Spartan should be sought out for being recruited in Konoha's ranks to ensure their tide of the war and security for peace... Or sought out to be destroyed and made sure it stayed that way.

Danzo placed another stack of papers on the side of his desk before reaching into the cabinet for the last form at the very bottom. Grabbing it with his wrinkly hand and grasping the corner he pulled it up before looking over at an illustration of a man... But soon turned out to be the Spartan with a large number at the bottom. His gaze remained the same when looking at the paper once more Danzo's mouth formed a thin line at what he read.

**[WANTED DEAD]**

**SPARTAN-117/ 'THE Orenjiaido Akuma'**

**If seen attack immediately without remorse. **

**Bring body for proof. **

**Head is optional.**

**-12,000,000 RYO-**

**BOUNTY HOLDER: KIRIGAKURE **

Danzo merely grunted sourly at the bingo book form before placing it in a orange folder and exiting the room to deliver it to the Hokage.

* * *

**XXXXXXX**

**(3 hours later/ LAND OF WIND[KAZE NO KUNI/ 風の国] just outside Sunagakure)**

**XXXXXXX**

* * *

Chief glanced at the wide spreading desert land below through the side of the pilots windshield and noted how big the wasteland was in comparison to some of the other deserts he had come across in his time. Looking over the sand covered mountains that were a lightish yellow color outside of what looked like a city all constricted by sand. This was Sunagakure.

He knew this of course and looked at the city that held thousands upon thousands of small fortresses in a sphere for hundreds of miles in radius. It seemed that this lands atmosphere held a dry parched are to it. Even though the temperature was only about 85 degrees Fahrenheit contrasting the usual 100 degree deserts in Chief's mind.

After scoping out the direction he had been following for more than 4 hours inside the cramped interior space of the vulture, he correctly located the spy drone homing beacon about 2 miles outside of the barren wasteland of Suna's village. He wanted to keep a low profile from the public eye and he did so by keeping the Vultures frame as high as possible, and also used the cover of any clouds lingering in the sky, which there weren't many since the desert was in the middle of the heated whether. Steering the Vulture forward and making sure he was outside of the city limits, he began to fly toward a dirt mountain that could provide enough cover to him from the villages eyes and seemed to be the to the closes part toward the drone that also had a flat surface...

Arriving toward the mountains peak he turned the engines down slowly which significantly lowered his altitude very quickly. Nearing the top of the mountain he slowed the fall so he didn't crash into the mountain and landed softly in the sand. When he felt the landing gear touch the ground he turned everything off and activated the locking systems for the weapons. He pushed the lid upward emitting a hiss and exited out by jumping toward into the sand that sunk a bit from his excessive weight.

He unhooked his assault rifle from his back and felt it launch into his palm tightly as he turned the safety off and aimed it ahead, leading to a perpendicular pathway down the mountainside. Chief proceeded forward on the scorching sand with his waypoint pointed to the left but had to create a detour on a narrow path down the narrow trail.

He kept traveling for about an 12 minutes leaving sizable footprints in the sand that displayed his size 19 foo, but were quickly brushed away by the winds. Covering over them. Chief kept himself pressed up against the mountains rocky part since the drop was about 1200 feet can lead to a very deep crevice that seemed to stretch for miles upon miles across the valley.

After arriving towards the bottom of the mountain Chief strolled over toward the left and begun advancing around the lower base of it, taking mental pictures of where he was and remember the way back. A few trees were there around the area and some were dead as they laid across the path from lack of water. He simply stepped over a few that laid there while moving a few off the cliff edge, plummeting like a rock. Looking to his scanners tracer he calculated the exact distance.

_"20 more meters."_ Chief thought to himself when he approached a empty cave that stood in the side of the rocky hill. Tightening his grip on the stock of the assault rifle he scanned the area around him and didn't seem to catch anything at the moment and he took one last look of the animated sun that stood high in the sky before he advanced toward the caves entrance.

This struck chief in the wrong way since the very last transmission on the Spy drone showed it was above a running river, not a dark cave...

His brain steadied a bit when he activated his assault rifles lights, illuminating the inside of the cave and showing the dark dusty walls inside from past sandstorms that seemed to swallow up the floor. It looked as if the cave's interior was quite completely littered with an endless ocean of the small sand particles that cave the appearance it was consuming the inside.

When the master chief arrived at the end of the cave a wall stood before him, halting his journey. But what perplexed him is that he not only came across the signal of the fallen spy done that was less than a couple feet away but a living signal from above. He looked around again but couldn't see anything that looked relevant minus for the stalagmites that hung proudly from the ceiling. This didn't lower his weariness though when he arrived to an opening in the side of the compressed wall. When he approached it he had to duck his head and squeeze in through which wasn't in any way easy.

After proceeding to do this over for a few minutes he became enthralled by the largeness of the room he stumbled upon. It was big... Very big in fact. Walking slowly forward through the pitch black dug in he he saw that the signal was within this room, approximately 49 feet above him. Looking up he saw that the caves inner walls pushed out a bit and looked like it could support something if one were to place it there. Chief clipped the assault rifle to his back and walked forward to the wall as he placed a hand on it to begin his climb up.

Almost instantly when he placed his hand on the bumpy cave wall, something smashed against the center of his hand sharply in the span of a second. This alarmed him him as he spun around with his rifle in hand speedily and blasted to whoever had attacked him with precise accuracy. But the Spartans aim was off however when all he hit was the rocky wall as the bullets ricochet in the opposite direction. He looked down to what hit him and saw it was a shuriken that bent on the side from hitting him as it lay in the sand.

"You're invading my cave wanderer." A deep booming voice sounded from above. When chief turned his head up to see where the voice came from he was smashed so hard that his head bent back and crashed into the cave wall that everything behind him collapsed like cardboard soon after. He then smacked into the ground but quickly sprang back up to see a man standing above him with arms crossed.

The man was 6 feet tall with medium dark skin that looked rather tan from Chief's perspective. He had slim bodily features and his face saving for his eyes were covered by a white tarp that wrapped around his mouth and over the top of his head, he also wore a ripped black tank top that displayed a good portion of his muscled physique and also showed a few stitching scars around his biceps that looked quite fresh as they appeared like they were imputed a very short time ago. Around his legs were a pair of green pants that looked thick for whether in these type of condition with a few patches on them and on his feet were a pair of dark yet filthy sandals with bandages wrapped tightly from his knees toward his ankles.

Chief cocked his gun upward without question and fired 2 shots but saw the man explode in a puff of smoke as he felt the area around him tremble powerfully and he nearly lost his balance when the stone floor beneath him shoot up, making him buckle downwards and smashed him in the cave's ceiling, making his armors alarm go off and down to 82%.

His knees bucked in his chest forcing a gust of air to forcibly exit out of his mouth along with some spit when he flew upward and smashed in the ground causing some of the caves dust to spur around. He shakily but sturdily stood up from the cold sand and clutched the side of his helmet when he heard a deep breath behind him again followed by the man saying grimly.

"When they spoke of a man whose movements were nearly untraceable, I thought they were exaggerating." He remembered. "Looks like they were wrong." When Chief turned his was he was met with a pair of eyes that nearly stared right through his soul. Even though he was in the pitch black dark and a bit far to most people that they wouldn't be able to notice anything wrong, Chief could distinctly make out the man's green irides with no pupils and red sclerae staring at him like some sort of mysterious specter.

Chief cocked his head to the left suddenly and he reached behind his back for his assault rifle, he aimed it upward and began spraying bullets at the man as he jumped up expertly and evaded each shot by centimeters apart. Flipping, spinning, and finally striking at John.

Raising his rifle in defense when the man smacked his foot again toward his head, he was able to block it followed by another spin kick while in mid air. Chief reached up and gripped the man's ankle before yanking him down and slamming him on the ground as he hit his back first, John aimed his gun down and shot him... Then he exploded like a bomb.

Chief's energy shields absorbed most of the blast leveling it down to 13%, but the force propelled him backwards yet he was able to catch himself from falling on his shoulder and hastily stood up fully before turning to his left and hearing the man's steady mocking laugh to him from afar. Chief checked his scanner but couldn't see the man anywhere...

"I'm Kakuzu and your bounty shall be mine." The man who introduced himself as Kakuzu started from anywhere, making the word "Bounty" ring in Chief's mind for a about 2 seconds as he looked cryptically around him for any signs of his attacker who was well hidden.

"Bounty?" Chief's perplexed voice asked aloud . Enough for Kakuzu to hear apparently when he suddenly stood right before him instantly just at arms length with his down to his sides calmly and said.

"Yes. 12 million RYO from the Mizukage himself. Quite a lot from a very silent and calm man, who, if I remember correctly wanted you to undergo the slowest and most painful death to make the bounty double... I'm here to make sure that happens." Chief's scowl deepened and he was momentarily wondering who he was talking about...

Before it struck him like a gravity hammer at full force as the recollection of a few months kicked in.

That man from Kirigakure who used advanced water jutsu's and clones...

The name _Mizukage_ sounded very clear now in Chief's memory bank now

"You've got a lot of attention on yourself now from bounty hunters... And I enjoy hunting someone who even survived one of the tailed beasts." Kakuzu said as his left arm twitched weirdly making chief raise a brow in confusion. What was that?

Chief launched himself forward and threw a left hook at Kakuzu who raised an arm up and blocked it without budging, making chief feel as if he had smashed his hand in the side of a mountain wall. Kakuzu quickly uppercutted chief in the stomach making his shields flare violently before backhanding him on the side of his helmet far from his position. Chief got up to his knees and coughed a few times with his eye twitching from the lack of oxygen. Kakuzu hadn't moved from the sport before narrowing his green and red eyes at John.

"Your speed is above average but nothing special. Strength... Is just above the average gennin. No chakra abilities... You won't survive long."

Chief got up and didn't his rifle but had a very subliminal feeling he was very outclassed. His attacker in just a few moves displayed rough combat strategies and proved to be an adept strategist when it came to planning. Kakuzu was fast, strong, and durable with an unconventional amount of skill..

Chief knew he was going to be beaten and killed if he couldn't find a way to trick Kakuzu...

He just didn't know what yet...

"That armor looks fitting on you. I should probably rip it off your corpse and see if I can make a profit in it..." Kakuzu taunted chief as he stepped closer, trying to antagonize him and catch him by surprise.

John didn't fall quite so easily at the implication though since he had a long experience with that type of foolery trick that had probably passed over him long by now. The unggoy or simply known everywhere as grunts, who were famously known for their cowardice on the battlefield were also quite mischievous as well and would pretend to run away in fear making marines or Spartans give chase only to stumble upon a horde of jackals or Elites waiting for them.

Kakuzu teleported right before chief making him step back in defense as Kakuzu snapped a chop and brought it at John's neck, which felt as if he had been struck by a fully loaded speeding tank that sent him back in a blur rolling in the dirt. Taking in his bearings as he stood up and fired again at Kakuzu who... Extended his arms so long that they disconnected from flesh leaving only black wiring to hold them together as they evaded all bullets and grabbed on the back of Chiefs head and ripped him forward, right off his feet.

Kakuzu brought Chief before him and said arrogantly, "You lose," then kneed him so hard he felt as if his intestines imploded with his armor going down as low as 34%. "_This was insane"_ was Chief's thought of the man's inhuman strength displayed onto him as he nearly up-chucked in his helmet and bent down to his knees to slow his hoarse breathing and catch it.

When Chief's eyes drifted to the left he could see Kakuzu's arm still disconnected besides the black nerves all mashed together in a tangled heap and could make out the sound of a an ambiguous thumping sound that reminded him the distinctive noise of a human heartbeat.

Kakuzu placed his hand on chief's helmet and said victoriously. "The council of Kirigakure's civilians only wanted a body... They didn't say you needed a head."As he explained this he began to slowly pull on chiefs head hoping to decapitate him, but what Kakuzu failed to notice was that in chiefs left hand was an active multiple purpose grenade.

Chief shot up like a cannon slamming his the back of his head into Kakuzu's jaw before slamming the grenade into Kakuzu's chest ripping his flesh and tearing through his ribs and kicked him on the groin making the bounty hunter roar out in pain. Chief shot off in the opposite direction and toward a lake when the grenade exploded and nearly catching him in the blast radius. He breathe softly as he turned around and saw nothing but dark smoke and some fires as the dead trees on the outside lit up.

Chief felt grateful but also knew he could have just alerted any of the villages border patrol with that grenade since the average shinobi could run for days without food or water, and so could Spartans-II's. As chief looked back to the hole so he could re-enter it he was caught off guard when something engulfed him in a near blinding light of orange and red that almost blinded him.

Instincts were active as he speedily rolled out of the dancing flames that burned his armor and he looked to where the source was and saw... A hideous red and white mask spewing flames out of its mouth, giving it the appearance of a fabled dragon. Chief's eyes grew wide when he saw small black tendrils connected to the mask looking indeed like a dragon and followed the trail before his eyes landed on the familiar red and green eyed man.

The white mask closed its mouth with a curdling quench and the black tendrils retracted back into the man's arms, after that the black stitches tied into his skin as back together. He didn't make a sound when it dug through. Chief wondered what the hell he was and said aloud. "What..."

The man began doing a row of hand signs as he said. "You took my heart bastard... So I'm taking yours in exchange." Kakuzu claimed making Chief turn his head confusingly at the statement as Kakuzu let the black wire from his black and arms escape outward and begin to from some type of massive blob. Chief ignored what was happening before him and ran forward as fast as he could like an unfocused arrow to shoot Kakuzu in the chest or bash his face in, but something from underneath him smashed his jaw upward making the shields flare before something grabbed him by the neck to swing him around side to side like a ragdoll, where Chief clenched his fingers tightly on the rifle's grip and tried to assert himself while in mid-air. He then felt the tightness around his throat disappear and felt as if he was about to hit the ground. He slid in the sand and saw he was quickly approaching a crevice. Bucking his knees forward he shot them out and stopped himself from flying over the edge and into a canyon, but the speed he was traveling at made the rock he pushed himself onto broke under his weight and made him start to slip down the steep margin until he quickly latched his hand onto the first thing he could grasp. His hand was met with something as he felt the hard rock squeeze underneath his grip.

Looking down the dark abyss he saw a small work like river running who knows how far below him with his legs dangling in air with one arm held on.

He saw something come up from behind on his scanner and looked up to detect Kakuzu standing above him with his eyes as thin as lines as he sneered. "Hanging huh? You're more pathetic than I have ever imagined. Not even worth a Million I just picked up on the way here, what it then? The description on the bounty form sounds more deadly than what you've shown me..." Chief chose the option of saying nothing and ignoring the statement as he tried to think of a way to escape this situation... but only had one idea.

Locking his leg down onto a small rock sticking out slow him he flew up before grabbing onto Kakuzu's ankle and ripping him forward. This kakuzu exploded into a torrent of flames making chief shield his eyes as he managed to pull himself up and away from the ledge. He looked to see the pathway leading up to the Vulture was clear and gave him the option to run or to fight.

Chief looked over to the upper right of the edge of the cliff and saw his rifle shining in the dirt. Retrieving it and loading a fresh new clip he tried to figure out where Kakuzu was but didn't see him. He knew he would return at any given moment but he wasn't going to sit and wait, but rather let Kakuzu find him and then take him down...

Chief went as fast as his legs could carry and went back into the cave and took the same route as he did before making sure to check his surroundings cautiously while keeping an eye on his scanner.

After arriving in the same part of the cave he was able to get the spy drone and look it over.

The left wing was only held together by wires when it crashed, bucking the metal inward before tearing, and the back engine making the the drone fly possible was dented on the left side damaging the internal parts. Strapping it on his back and grunting at the weight of the 400Ib piece of UNSC hardware he went over to the hole in the wall before hearing something behind him. Chief quickly ran over to the gaping hole that had been made from the scuffle between him and Kakuzu and exited it.

Skeptically he looked behind him and wondered what kakuzu was planning before he felt something digging into his neck, he turned around only to see something shiny and black smash into his visor making him fly backward and nearly over the ravine as he landed on his stomach roughly and stared at the ground.

He pressed his hands down, pushing himself off the ground and looked upward at what hit him until he spotted a giant black blood made of those black wires again and the only thing that wasn't covered was by the wiring was the white and blue mask that looked as if it were crafted by a toddler. Chief held his rifle upward before rushing toward the trail that lead up the mountain to the vulture and firing at the monster at the same time as it began to rush him.

His rifle ran dry of ammo and he emptied the clip and was about to place a new one in, but had the rifle ripped from his hands and saw it be pluned over the ridge and into the ravine. Chief could only watch as his rifle spun in the air and soon disappeared below his vision and he soon heard from below him.

"You can't run, and you can't hide."

Chief had enough now as he became increasingly agitated at the hunters continuous threats towards him. He turned around toward the still standing bounty hunter who walked towards him with a calm walk, almost like he was taking his time, Chief held his hand over the Sticky detonator that was attached to his thigh and felt the gun fly into his hand as he aimed it below with a careful aim and shot the sizable explosive toward Kakuzu. The softball sized projectile shot out like a cannon and flew in a straight line down the path before it began to blink red rapidly, it stuck beside Kakuzu who dashed back over the sand with the speed rivaling a flying hawk. Kakuzu looked at it tan back to Chief and said.

"Your aim is-

There was a strong detonation that rocked the side of the mountains sand formation, causing pebbles and larger stones to being to collapse toward the dazed immortal bounty hunter. Chief watched as the side walls began to spill over towards Kakuzu who began jumping over one stone to another like a multi national winning gymnast.

Chief reached behind him for an explosive and loaded it on the end of the gun with a push and a twist,he aimed again and fired the second round near the stones Kakuzu was going to land on, Kakuzu's eyes became thin as lines when he saw this however, and he managed to evade it by launching one of his as toward a stone above him...

What he didn't see however, was Chief aiming the sticky detonator at the stone he had latched onto.

Kakuzu felt his hand become sliced and engulfed in flames as he felt literally every fiber in his being t not scream. Kakuzu grunted as he yanked it back and landed on the pathway to we're the spartan was running and looked down at his arm as he raised it eye level and saw the charred flesh become sticky at the ends of his fingers, and were a clear liquid mixed with blood drained out side the third degree burns that were deep in his skin. Kakuzu growled loudly and said.

"No more games... This time it's personal."

"Likewise." Chief responded angrily as he kept a trained eye on the immortal who was standing 34 feet below him down the steep trail bleeding. He watched closely as the men's dark hair blew softly in the warm breeze and could make out some features of his face, most noticeably the stitches beside his mouth. Chief glimpsed at the dark liquid that slowly dripped down from Kakuzu's hand to his elbow slowly and took note of his gaze that had a dark look to it that made him appear more menacing than before.

Chief didn't know what happened until the man pressed both hands together and held the same signs for a period of a few seconds.

Nothing moved but the wind carrying sand.

Chief knew what he was going to do and didn't waste any time to blast Kakuzu with a sticky detonator.

However he simply moved his head to the left and let the airborne explosive device fly right past him. "That won't work anymore for you." After that was said he did something that made chief feel his eyes grow to the size of saucers. The mans stitches on his back ripped apart, forcing his sides to peel back like the slices on a banana. Chief didn't know what he was seeing until the figures formed before him and each one was oddly shaped with a different themed mask.

Kakuzu then separated his inner stitching from the figures and chief watched as he became on whole person again as the small black strings put themselves back into place. One of the masked beings fell over in a heap with its mask having a few shards from the grenade piercing through it.

"How?" Chief asked aloud.

"Interesting? That was one of my hearts you just destroyed with your little explosion." Kakuzu said offhandedly, not taking his eyes of the prize. "Quite lucky I must say since no one was able to think of that before..." He conceded. "But now it shall not be happening again since I learn from my mistakes..."

"Heart?" Chief asked in absolute perplexity. _Hearts? As in more than one? There had to be something wrong with that-_

"Yes... _Hearts. _I steal them off shinobi and gain their ability, and when I lose one I just grab another. Many years I've done this... And I enjoy it." Kakuzu lectured toward the guarded Chief who stood completely motionless. "Each heart has a unique power that I can control. Fire, earth, water, air, and lighting. These are my abilities and you've shown nothing... Not even basic chakra techniques."

"I don't use it." Chief responded and trying to see an opening

"Enough about me, I want my reward now." He finished as he made one of the indescribable figures lunge toward him and swiped at him with a fast yet wobbly strike that chief was able to duck under but didn't see Kakuzu race beneath him and strike him in the shoulder with a downward chop.

Chief sunk into the ground and seethed in pain when he felt his shoulder twinge heavily from the hardiness from Kakuzu's combat. Chief threw his hand behind Kakuzu's neck and brought a knee up to the man's stomach and was met with the pain of kneeing a solid rock that bent slightly inward. Kakuzu felt it too however when he buckled slightly at the man's above average strength. Chief swung himself around the man and placed him in a choke hold with his left arm tucked under Kakuzu's chin and the other hand on the back of his head. "Nice... attempt." Kakuzu wheezed out painfully before the black wiring in his back shot out and wrapped tightly around John's arms, legs, neck, and frame like thousands of tiny snakes

"But sadly it won't do you any good." He held a single sign before shouting.

"**WIND STYLE: PRESSURE DAMAGE!" **After that the howling winds appeared from nowhere. Chief became distracted at the sudden gust of wind... That only grew to monstrous strength...

There was no easy way to describe what happened but could be defined as being put in an absolute spin sickle set on_ Hellraiser _speed

Chief felt his entire body be thrown around like a rag-doll in the sounds of winds that could rival the sounds of a tornado. Everything was thrashing about crazily and he couldn't see anything clearly with how fast everything was moving around him. It was nearly impossible to control the actions of his arms with the g-force acceleration by the second and tell where the ground was and where he was spinning.

When he tried to grab onto anything that flew by but felt himself become lifted in the air higher and higher, making the ground below grew smaller and smaller. Chief felt uneasy and quickly knew gravity was taking effect when he began to plummet back down towards earth.

He was rushing past 100 mph now and the wind was screaming past his helmets inner speakers and the heaviness was beginning to pull him even faster since this planets gravity was more powerful due to it's size, leading him to point he actually thought he wouldn't make it. In most cases when falling from this high of altitudes, Chief was given training to buck his knees inward to protect his inner organs from the impact. Looking down to see where the ground was he tried to resume his balance which was very difficult to catch, but triumphed after the first chance. Averting his lower section until it was pointing toward the ground the master chief saw he only had a few hundred feet left and was surpassing it by a few seconds. If he had a UNSC Air Force M-spec reentry pack or an anti-gravity well landing gear than his chances of survival would be greater...

But this time he would be lucky to land with his legs intact from without and within.

With only a hundred feet left to go and soon dropping quicker than he could keep up with, Chief tried to lock his armor as quickly as he could before he-

**CRASKIISHHHHHHH!**

-slammed right into the side of the vultures side door with enough psi to rival getting smacked by the bow of a Pelican at full speed. He felt his left rib cage bend inward and felt something exploded in his legs. He rolled to the side out if the dent he had just made and landed in the dirt face first. Chief felt absolutely livid now as he felt something burn deep in his legs and a numbing sensation his his feet. Everything besides his head and arm felt like they were burning. He couldn't see anything as his helmet had planted in the sand and all chief could hear were the hollowing winds in the desert crashing over him.

He opened his eyes and saw nothing but blurred blackness along with an assortment of eye floaters in different colors. When he blinked a few times his vision was cleared a bit and he could see that his shields were completely down and his armors status read DANGER.

"Get up." Kakuzu's voice resonated on chief's hearing. Chief complied as he lifted his head from the sand that spilled out from the openings in his armor and he groaned softly at the numbness he was experiencing his his knees that felt deep.

Probably nerve damage.

Chief used what little strength he had left to push himself up and look at Kakuzu who stood right in front of him only by a couple yards and said. "You survive quite a fall. But this was too easy, still 20 million shouldn't be wasted." Kakuzu walked forward right in front of the Vultures gunning wings and prepared to execute chief by doing the same thing by gripping his helmet and beginning to pull until Chief began to feel some of the muscles about to tear...

Then an idea formed in chiefs head at the sight of Kakuzu "standing" right in front of an armed GUA-23/AW/Linkless Feed Autocannon... Completely vulnerable to damage.

For some strange reason when chief had that thought of it firing, something actually processed through Chiefs wireless mainframe and synced the order toward the vulture's The autocannon. It didn't have to aim but was right behind it's intended target. Kakuzu had no idea what was going on when the mainframe read.

_-Target acquired-_

Kakuzu didn't know what went off like a pounding explosion and sounded like an impenetrable snapping boom, but all Kakuzu knew was something smashed into his back and erupted out of his chest with a chunks of his flesh being blown off in chunks of blood.

He felt it though... That's what frightened him at that moment.

The horrendous burning sensation that was indescribable and the force behind it was almost instantaneous. All that he knew at that moment was that his lightning heart had been struck on the upper left corner, and smaller metal shards stabbed into it.

Kakuzu was pushed forward by the strong might that he fell down over the lip of the mountain. Trying to grab onto anything as he began to slide down and was able to stab a kunai into the soft sand but it didn't help. Forcing chakra in his feet he was able to push himself up and finally keep him in total balance along the sand hill. Kakuzu looked down at the hole in his stomach that lead outward to his back and growed loudly before smashing a fist in the sand in anger.

**BOOOOOM**

-and smashed his fist right into a sticky detonator shell that had fallen off chief's waist earlier...

Chief who was still attempting to get up struggled to his feet with the searing pain in his side burning like a flaming skillet had pushed up against him, and his leg that felt like it had been struck by an endless barrage of needlers at full force.

He turned his head toward the bare edge where Kakazu fell and disintegrated after being shot. He couldn't seem to detect him on his scanner and could only assume the most plausible. When he painstakingly walked over an looked down to see anything the only thing he saw was a shattered white mask spilling over and down the sand.

Chief had a minuscule feeling that Kakuzu could have survived and was just playing possum since he survived several explosions from his upgraded sticky detonator, and a direct blast from an auto-cannon through the back, but he had a large feeling it would take a while for him to return. Chief felt the wind pick up even more, noting the sand as it blew away in the wind, sounding twice as loud now. He even noted despite feeling like he felt his organs cave in the side from the excessive force and his legs were in an agonizing state right now, but not broken. since it wasn't possible. Chief breathed softly to himself and had an ominous feeling a storm was coming from the weather patterns and the dark looming cloud approaching.

Chief looked to where he hit the Vulture from falling at 800 feet and saw he only smashed into the right sides weapons compartment where all he had them all cached in case of sizable danger.

Which had unfortunately happened to him by chance...

"_Lucky me." _Chief thought to himself dryly as he ripped the weapons compartment door off and looked at the damages. He knew some of them would be damaged beyond repair from how deep the bent went in, but he was very lucky it was the weapons instead of his health.

Stumbling toward the cockpits entrance while holding a hand down on the side of his thigh that stung whenever he put weight on it, chief climbed inside before making a right in the cockpit and sat in the seat which didn't help much for him.

He did the same routine of activating the vulture by turning the mapping systems on, priming the weapons, priming the mapping systems, and rebooting connection with the Infinity for autopilot.

The jet turbines in the rear began to spin and launch the intense heat from the excessive friction and this caused the vulture to slowly ascend. Chief pulled the throttle back slowly and watched as the village in the distance began to shrink without much hurry. He then slowly steadied the vulture toward and it followed his and before it soon began to pick up speed very quick and fly through the sandy air that began to evoke louder winds and soon a enormous cloud of the sandstorm appeared.

The vulture lifted above the storm and kept above it for awhile as it slowed up a bit when chief stood up inside the gunner ships cockpit before opening the back door inside and limped over to the very back part, next to one of the gunning ports. There he sat down against the wall in top of one of the reinforced crates and slowly glanced outside the window elbow to gaze at Sunagakure's mile long shadows casted by the sun.

He noted the architecture that was so foreign to him and couldn't help but praise the men and women who built the village completely out of sand. Chief knew the war wouldn't end anytime soon since he was in one for for 27 years and it had still been active with the storm unit from the former covenant.

Chief saw one of his tools beside him and slowly gripped the drills handle next to him. Pushing it against the bolt of the side of his helmet he un-tightened each bolt on the side before sliding his helmet off with a few sand specs falling on the metal floor. The hungry and nearly exhausted chief looked into his helmets visor and noted his reflection seemed more busted up now with a bleeding scratch above his eyebrow and his nose that had an enlarged bruise forming.

He looked over his damaged features one last time and remembering what he had to do at the Infinity when he got to the medical station. He leaned back and put the helmet to the side and glanced out the window once more to get another eyeful of the endless desert.

After watching it for more than a few moment a realization came to him. Almost like a light switch in his mind he knew...

He knew he had a job to do and no one was would be willing to be able to make the compromises and complete it. Pushing the thought to the side for a second he coughed with a very dry throat and a dizzy feeling. He was thirsty. No, scratch that he was beyond parched. Looking about the cabin he found the reserved water tank and took a few gulps of it straight from the drain at the very bottom of it.

He needed that since he actually considered of joining a war that was not his... But after the numerous amount of time and consideration he had no choice but to be where he was needed. Simply because he wanted to and wouldn't waste time with excessive searching which lead him no where. Maybe joint the war and exploring a bit would lead him somewhere.

It would be joke if Chief denied that he wouldn't always stumble across the right way almost every time...

The master Chief stood up firmly with a new found strength, ignoring the numbness in his left thigh and went back into the drivers seat. He looked at the endless wastelands before pushing the accelerator forward, thinking deeply of where he should strike first and how _hard. _However,he was only one man on an enormous cataclysmic world with beings stronger than him, faster than him, quicker than him, smarter than him, more durable than him, maybe even luckier in ways. But even if they were bigger than him times a hundred...

John swallowed some spit that was collecting in his mouth and noticed the distinctive taste of iron mixed, giving him the reminiscing taste of his death missions. He felt alone inside the quite vulture cockpit with nothing but the sound of the engines roaring behind him... Alone with nothing to prove, and no obligation to begin with... He was only one... Man after all...

Man...

...

His brain ceased motion and just stayed inactive for a few moments. Even though he was only one man, and they were a bigger threat than he was, but he knew that those who made the biggest of differences in a world just started as one _man_ with nothing left to lose...

John formed a deep frown and thought to himself.

"_Time to finish it."_

* * *

**AUTHORS NOTE: ****Well, tell me what you think.**

**April Fools to all, and to all a good night.**

**SHIPWRECK-5897**


	11. Targeted from every corner

_"Sometimes by losing a battle, you find a new way to win the war."_

_\- Donald Trump_

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**DISCLAIMER/ I don't own Halo or Naruto**

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Chapter 11: Targeted From Every Corner

* * *

"UGH!" Kakuzu choked when the sand nearly fell down his throat, making him gag in reflex. After nearly two painstaking hours that felt like days of digging himself out of the sandstorm that had appeared out of nowhere, he expected the Spartan to be waiting out here for round two...

Or not. Not a single, solitary soul was around.

"Twelve million gone, just like that," Kakuzu breathed out in vexation, his frown growing deeper. If there was one thing he hated more than anything else, it was losing easy money. Easy money was like robbing candy from a defenseless baby, and with the Spartan being humorously weak against him, it would have – should have – likely been an easy kill, but he had not predicted the Spartan being very crafty in combat.

First, he had learned that that odd metallic thing the Spartan held would fire out smaller metal objects at a near blinding rate, and knowing this vital news meant that it would be easier for Kakuzu to incapacitate his opponent after separating him from his weapon.

If he had just taken his time to kill him, he would already be on his way to Kiri to claim his reward, but now he was stuck in the middle of the godforsaken desert with no Spartan body, and more importantly, no way to track him.

Kakuzu grew increasingly furious at himself as his mistake seemed to grow larger by the second. He had planned for two weeks to find the Spartan by unwinding tips from the multitude of whimsical tales told by bar patrons, but none had helped his search. Then he'd spent many days trying to track him after he'd been spotted in Konohagakure, wasting no time in going down there and beginning a large search for him which ultimately lead nowhere...

That was all before he'd come across a small flying object that had obviously not been a bird. His curiosity had gotten the better of him, and he'd followed it through the Land of Waves while avoiding its line-of-sight. While he was not normally someone who got distracted from his primary objective, the object had struck him as something that might be valuable, and those were the types of things that Kakuzu knew he had to have.

Taking it down had been easy, just like his water-walking exercise, a simple swish and flick. He'd taken his prize to one of the money caves located in Suna's only mountain range, where he'd known it would be well-hidden from anyone brave enough to go inside.

The Spartan coming there, though, was probably one of the luckiest days of his life, almost like finding a golden brick stashed away under the desert's sand. Never had a bounty ever come across him in his near-six decades on this world; it had always been the other way around, with him chasing down anyone interesting and taking their heads in.

Kakuzu was brought back to reality when he noted how cold it was becoming, the once-yellow scorching sand turning a frigid dark orange as the sun set. Looking up to the sky and staring at the stars, he thought quickly and formulated a plan of action.

He would begin his search for the Spartan from scratch, as it was practically impossible to pinpoint him. Then, when he did get a trace of his target, he would redouble his efforts, find him, and torture him. Anyone related to him or had any relation toward the Spartan would be killed in a brutal fashion, never seeing the graceful angel known as 'mercy'.

When he found the man's home or base, Kakuzu would take everything with value and anything else would be burned to ashes. Everything that belonged to the Spartan would be his and his alone. No one would stand in his way of Kakuzu's relentless search, and when he found wherever the Spartan was hiding, he would kill him, plain and simple.

The mercenary swore a vendetta that night that he would not rest until he got his revenge.

And collected his money.

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**XXXXXXX**

**3 YEARS LATER...**

**[LAND OF HONEY/ 蜜の国-Mitsu no Kuni]**

**XXXXXXX**

* * *

The Land of Honey was unknown to most across the western parts, but those who had heard of it knew it was best known for its large markets containing some of the Elemental Nations most diverse districts. However, with the war raging on, demanding shinobi and consumables be shipped to the frontlines, the economy was at an all-time low.

It was currently night, with a bone-chilling air blowing through the mostly-deserted town. Many of the buildings were demolished, while some of their foundations were crumbling away to breaking points. The Land of Honey was a loss...

**Blam!**

An ominous blare rang through the valley as a man's body slumped to the muddy ground in a heap, a smoking hole in the center of his head. A shallow shuffle sounded from behind him, followed by an armored boot that stomped over the corpse and proceeded briskly down the dark road.

John looked around at the countless mangled corpses riddled with bullet holes. Most of the men on the ground wore Kiri headbands, while others were Suna shinobi. After almost 15 seconds of listening around and hearing nothing except the crackling fires in the buildings, he moved on.

Targets neutralized, John thought to himself. Proceeding north. Loading a fresh clip in his assault rifle, he walked back to his Pelican stationed a few miles outside of the village. Now that he walked lands filled with deceptive predators and men and women who knew hundreds of ways to kill a person, he had to be cautious.

The few restless months which had stretched into three years had been eventful in many ways. The world John had come to know as 'Earth-2' was filled with many things he had never known of or could imagine possible. His name and appearance were now known across many parts of the land, granting him the moniker 'Orenjiaido Akuma', which translated to 'Orange-Eyed Demon', though John didn't particularly care what people thought of him or what they wanted to do with him; he had a job to do and it was waiting to be started.

The chaos of his clash with Kakuzu three years previously had fallen on deaf ears, but what took place the days following that was heard loud and clear in every direction. John had returned to Kirigakure – as he'd been there more than once, and thus knew what he was getting into, not to mention the village was in a weakened state – to gain more answers with regards to the war.

John had located key officials who were loyal to the Mizukage, namely intelligence squads in charge of key information concerning the village's dire secrets. When John had found a roster with their names and locations, it took him less than four weeks to interrogate all of them and dispose of any traces of them to cover his tracks.

After his little bout in the Hidden Mist against its Mizukage, he'd been labeled a public menace and been placed in the Bingo Book. It wasn't the heftiest of bounties, only 12,000,000 ryō, but that didn't mean John was in the clear yet. There were still many bounty hunters after him, especially from Taki. He'd taken care of the search parties or bounty hunters by launching an array of espionage attacks on their villages and destroying any leads they had on him, and followed that up by destroying any important documentation and eliminating high-ranking shinobi.

However, he had not anticipated finding scrolls with odd kanji that looked familiar to him. When searching what the kanji had described, he had kept coming across the word 'seal' over and over again. Unable to figure out what they meant, at the time, he'd assumed they were unimportant.

After finding out more about seals, he'd realized just how wrong he'd been. The complex art of sealing something in a sub-dimension by applying blood and a series of complicated kanji that had to be written almost perfectly… John wanted to learn more about it, but it required something important that he didn't have: chakra.

John had tried to mold chakra, but each and every time he would end up with the same result – an agonizingly miserable failure.

Apparently, the most famed seal-users were a clan known as the Uzumaki, located in Uzushiogakure, the Village Hidden in Whirlpools. Facts about this distant land were all puzzling, but from what he had gathered, it was a place not to be taken lightly on any given day.

From reading personal documentations that he'd stolen from carriers, it seemed that the war had been started by the city known as Konoha, which utterly surprised him since he had ventured there on prior occasions. While Konoha had begun the war, the rest of the nations' capitals were not helping it. More and more men were being sent out on missions to destroy, capture, or kill something, but ended up dying instead.

The war was going nowhere, and John wasn't going to be joining anyone to end it. It was him and him alone.

He'd first planned to end it by attacking another village that had the most participation – the Village Hidden in Clouds within the Land of Lightning – in order to weaken its defensive lines, by while he had been there previously, there'd been no easy way to pinpoint the locations of troops or the Kage. John had ended up spending several weeks trying to gather answers, but without any leverage, he'd come across all dead ends, barring the one time he'd caught a straggler...

* * *

**XXXXXXX**

**37 DAYS BEFORE**

**KUMOGAKURE **(雲隠れの里, _Kumogakure no Sato)_

**XXXXXXX**

* * *

"Talk," John's raspy voice cut through the air in the foggy canyon. After executing the last of the Taki bounty hunters after him, he needed to know where the imported messages were from several of the lower region divisions.

"I don't sing for free," a cocky voice replied with a shouldered cough. "Speaking of which, I'm not supposed to talk to strangers..." The Kumo shinobi then placed a white piece of paper in his vest pocket and turned toward the silhouette in the fog. He squinted his eyes, trying to make out the visage, but soon saw nobody there.

"You will..." John said again as he stepped toward the calm man more quickly, and before the man knew it, his neck was being squeezed by a massive glove and he couldn't feel the ground below him any longer.

"Wha-what the fu—!" tried the Kumo-nin, only to break off into coughing.

"Attack me and I'll snap your neck," the Master Chief promised, squeezing tighter. He pressed a knife into the man's abdomen, though not hard enough to break skin, and asked, "Where are they?"

"What?" the Kumo nin asked while trying to steer away from the knife blade curling in his belly.

"The central messaging outpost. I want a location."

"Not telling," grunted his captive.

John knew this man's game, trying to play strong while having an arrogant attitude…it was all really a matter of time before he had to take extreme precautions and break the guy's clavicle.

"Location, NOW," John demanded more harshly while digging his fingers into the man's neck.

"You should let me go...the Ame shinobi wouldn't want their puppet to be cut off completely." The brown-haired man's sneer made John frown in disgust. "If only you could understand me, teme."

"I can understand you. I want to know where the outpost is."

"Forget it, I'll never tell."

John reared the man's body back and slammed him into the rock's foundation, not enough to kill him but enough to cave in his ribcage.

"N-nice...but it won't do..." the man wheezed out as his face began to turn an unhealthy red. He began to cough and hack up blood on John's forearm armor, but it didn't faze the Master Chief in the slightest.

Something caught John's eye on the left side of the Kumo shinobi's coat, and John reached out to grab it after dropping the man on the ground. The assassin tried to get up and summon a familiar to aid him, but felt every bone in his hand shatter as a massive green boot slammed on top of it.

**Crunch!**

The man gasped loudly and began screaming, feeling the bones snap and shatter before he saw some escape the skin in his hand.

John looked over the folded piece of paper and unfolded it before adjusting his eyes on the extended sentences.

_'Amegakure's leading general has to be stopped at all costs. I fear that once he's through Konoha's defense, he will more than likely set his sights on us. Destroy this note immediately after reading it and report back by sunrise._

_-Third Raikage'_

John looked down at his prisoner and gripped the back of his neck to lift him off the ground again.

"Who is Ame's general?" the Master Chief asked, ignoring his prisoner's agonized groans. He felt like he knew who the man was, had heard the name before, but it wasn't coming up.

The Kumo-nin spat out a name as if it were poison. "Hanzō…the Salamander." Almost like a light switch flipping in John's mind, he instantly remembered that name.

"Then you have no relation to Hanzō," the Mizukage questioned.

"Who?"

"Hanzō the Salamander. Ame's leader."

John kept the name rolling in his mind, trying to calculate a plan on taking Hanzō out of the picture, but first he would have to find the man. He leveled a glare back to the shinobi in his clutches and slowly asked, "Where is he?"

"Ame. Where else?" the young shinobi cockily sneered.

Finally fed up with his captive's act of impertinence, John dropped the man on the ground, allowing his back to hit the wall. The action caught the man off-guard as he felt his brain rattle and his vision blur from the smashing the back of his skull against the rock. While he rubbed his head to shakes off the dizziness, he didn't see the armored man raise his foot until it was too late.

A loud crack echoed through the rocky landscape, followed by screams that rent the night.

* * *

**XXXXXXX**

* * *

John took cautionary steps over some of the buildings' rubble while aiming toward the surrounding area. The Ame shinobi had tracked him down surprisingly well and even put up a fair fight, though it hadn't prevented him from shredding through them in a matter of minutes. They had been ruthless and highly-trained, and their ninjutsu techniques had proved to be almost too much to handle.

Based on that, John concluded that the major problem in the war was the Land of Rain.

From information John had gathered in the Land of Honey, Amegakure had the second strongest strength and most leverage against Konoha.

Finding information on Ame was hard to come by, and capturing Ame shinobi who would tell him anything of value was even more difficult. Any of the drones he sent either got lost in the rain or, for those that did manage to get inside, weren't able to see anything through the dense clouds and constant downpour.

There was only one reasonable thing he could do now when all else had failed, and that was to enter Amegakure and locate Hanzō personally. It wouldn't be easy, but he had a good feeling he would find him since there were rumors that he would be the one in battle.

If that was the case, all John had to do was lure him out.

John turned a corner and entered a shopping complex that was utterly soulless, the only things present being the mangled stands and surrounding fires.

He kept his eye locked on his scanner, trying to see if there were any survivors he could escort. Many times after exiting a village, he would come across one or more civilian survivors. Sometimes he would ignore them completely, but other times, when it was absolutely necessary, he would aid them in escaping.

He'd saved over 14 people after being on this planet for four long, perilous years. Most of the men and women he'd rescued were in too much of a fright to understand what was going on, incapable of processing what was happening. While he was in the middle of ending an onslaught, it didn't mean he had to ignore the helpless. He was molded by the UNSC to defend the innocent.

John exited the shopping district with his rifle clutched in his hands and finally began the trek down the dark road toward his Pelican. His only company was the soft, chilly breeze and the odor of burning wood and bodies.

After walking for more than an hour and navigating his way through a few dozen trees, he managed to come back to his grounded Pelican, walked around to the back, and entered it.

* * *

**KONOHAGAKURE **(木ノ葉隠れの里, _Konohagakure no Sato_)

* * *

Hiruzen Sarutobi was many things, but today he was very unhappy.

Scratch that, he was livid.

The 3rd platoon of shinobi he'd sent had failed to retrieve the prisoners in Amegakure from the previous battle. After several months of trying to recapture a front along the border with Amegakure, Hiruzen had been forced to send in some of Konoha's top shinobi to take care of Hanzō the Salamander personally.

Those being his very own students.

Hiruzen leaned back in his leather-lined chair and took one mighty puff of his pipe, feeling tired from the hour of work he'd spent signing treaties and granting authorization to Konoha's forces. He truly didn't know what he should do next but resume his mundane activities. He flipped idly through another report of the 'Orenjiaido Akuma' – which sounded a lot like the Spartan – but his thoughts were far away on his students.

Orochimaru, Tsunade, and Jiraiya.

All he could do now was give his students the faith they deserved...

And hope it would help them survive...

* * *

**AMEGAKURE **(雨隠れの里, _Amegakure no Sato_ )

* * *

There were many ways to describe the Land of Rain, but rainy was the first word that came to mind. All it did, and all it ever seemed to do, was rain for years on end. The storm was far too rough for the Pelican in which the Master Chief was piloting. While it could stand up to the disastrous elements of space combat, the rain mixed with lighting was proving to be too much to handle. He had spent 13 hours flying east toward Amegakure, and the majority of that time had been spent trying to get past the Land of Wind.

About three miles inside the border and at a stationary altitude of 700 feet, he began to descend in a canyon that provided excellent cover from other ninja.

After seeing the perfect spot to land, he began to kill the Pelican's engines and pull back the throttle slowly. The Pelican's wings lurched slightly to the side from a gust of wind, but the Master Chief made sure to keep the rear rotating wing steady against the constant patter of rain. He also made sure to keep an eye on the life scanner as well, since some shinobi were gifted in wind affinities and could knock him out of the sky if he wasn't careful.

John exited out of the Pelican's doors and walked softly on the soaked ground. The preload rear doors slowly raised themselves up and closed tightly as John made his way around the Pelican toward the black lock-box and opened it.

He took out an MA5C Assault Rifle and 13 clips of ammunition, placing them on the back of his utlity strips. Next, he grabbed for a Magnum and clipped it on his thigh, keeping the safety on. Given his locale, he also remembered to apply weather-resistant padding to the gun's features.

Reaching back into the weapons box, he pulled out a pair of frag grenades and attached them to his waistband. He began to close the weapons' box, but suddenly remembered, reopened it, and pulled out a large stick with four sharp, metallic points and a yellow sphere at the opposite end.

It was a Z-4190 Bubble Shield, giving 20 seconds of protection from anything besides vehicles and living beings.

Clicking it to the back of his waistband and tapping on his wrist's TAC/PAD, he locked up the Pelican and observed the area before him. Ame was a clear, desolate country with numerous rocky valleys drowning under the gushing rain. John had heard of planets with irregular weather patterns, but this really took the cake.

John looked over to the west and listened to the sound of thunder batting against the clouds. He set his retrieval waypoint back on the Pelican in case he became lost in the thick storm currently pelting his armor. He took a few steps south and then began a light jog, stepping in several puddles along the way.

The sky lit up for a millisecond, followed by the crashing boom of thunder. John continued to jog for almost a quarter-hour before he came across something on the rocky ground that made his jaw tighten...

A body.

That was still alive.

Upon further inspection, he saw the person was wearing a flak jacket and standard shinobi shoes. Why a shinobi was on the ground in the middle of the pouring rain was unknown to him, so he aimed his rifle at the man and took measured steps forward. "Don't move."

"C-can't...stand..." came the weakened reply.

John knelt down and turned the man over on his back, revealing a young teen with dark gray hair and green eyes. His face possessed several cuts and blood was running down his cheeks toward his lips. He was deathly pale, almost like paper, and the flak jacket he wore was coated in blood around his stomach. John's blue eyes looked down to find the man had been penetrated three times by metal shards that stuck out only two inches. Above the man's forehead was a standard forehead protector that was burnt almost beyond recognition. When John looked closer to try to make out the image there...

It was a Hidden Leaf headband.

"You..." the man said, trying to lift his arm and only moving his shoulders.

"What's your name?" the Master Chief asked, knowing this person was on death's doorstep and hoping to find information to know what he was up against.

"Taizu Hamada...Genin..." Blood was pooling in his mouth and dribbling out the sides, making his speech garbled. "I don't know…who you are…though…"

"Master Chief. What happened to you?"

"Ame forces," the Konoha-nin spluttered, his left eye twitching. "All of us…gone so fast…all fucking gone." Taizu gasped when he tried to think back to the fight, but all he could remember was everyone being taken by surprise amidst the sound of explosions.

"Did Hanzō do this?" John questioned, receiving a weak nod in return.

"Yes..." Taizu said. He swallowed his own spit in an attempt to continue replying, but a loud gasp escaped instead, and his eyes closed very slowly, shielding them from the oncoming rain.

"Taizu? Taizu, can you hear me?" The Master Chief tapped him on the side of his face, but saw the man's life force had depleted and assumed he'd bled out. From his wounds, it appeared as if it had only happened some minutes ago.

**BOOM!**

The Master Chief stood up as fast as lightning and held his rifle up toward the north when he heard something that didn't sound like lightning. Looking up, he saw several rocks fly about and hit the ground around him in a volley. Over a slightly elevated hill, John could make out a dark cloud blotch that was continuing to grow, too quickly to be natural. Continued observation allowed him to deduce that the quickly-elevating dark entity wasn't a cloud, but smoke created by an explosion.

He stepped over the corpse and saw more smoke as he began to hear yelling accompanied by grunts of pain. Peering over the rock, he caught a glimpse of something astounding…

**HUD: 6 targets...recalculating/NOW 4 TARGETS**

A cluster of bodies littered the ground over the hill's edge. Many of them were sprawled in heaping piles with arms and legs tangled together, blood painting the puddles a deep, sinister red.

John looked more closely through the rain and managed to catch sight of something gigantic moving at unimaginable speeds. Toward the left and onward it scurried away, making him squint just to catch a glimpse of it...

He slid down the hill and gave chase.

In the middle of a disastrous scene were three people wearing light gray armor around their midsection, a metal headband with a stylized leaf on it on cloth around their foreheads, a single pouch around their thighs, and metallic forearm and shoulder guards. Rain rolled down each physically-exhausted person, the evidence of some prior battle in the scrapes and bruises liberally covering them.

The first shinobi was a tall slender man with raven black hair that flowed past his shoulders and yellow eyes that could've passed for a snake's, purple markings trailing from their corners and along the profile of his nose. This man's name was Orochimaru, a true genius in the shinobi arts, though all his knowledge didn't prevent him from being at the limits of his stamina; despite that, he still stood and stared defiantly at his enemy.

Beside him was a taller, more muscular man with pointy, chalk-white hair, red lines tracking from his eyes toward his bottom jaw in an imitation of tear tracks, a wart on the left side of his nose making him look prematurely aged. This man's name was Jiraiya, formerly the dead-last of his class and now a self-proclaimed super pervert and extraordinary shinobi in his own right.

He was currently being held up by his teammate, a young, gorgeous woman with blonde hair, hazel eyes, and a very well-endowed figure. Her name was Tsunade Senju, the Slug Princess of Hidden Leaf and granddaughter of the First Hokage. Her knowledge of medical ninjutsu had allowed her to retain less injuries than her teammates, but she was running low on chakra and even holding Jiraiya up was taxing. Unfortunately, no reinforcements were forthcoming; the remainder of the Konoha platoon they'd come with decorated the soaked ground before them as corpses.

Before the trio stood Hanzō the Salamander, despot of Amegakure…not that he needed the village's aid. With decades of experience and a breath that was poisonous enough to kill those unfortunate enough to inhale it, Hanzō was a one-man army. Reports of his prowess said that he'd never been beaten in battle, and he'd never left survivors behind.

Hanzō was now standing atop a mighty salamander, his arms to his sides as rain poured down what little of his impassive face could be seen beneath his rebreather. He looked down at the Hokage's students and said sternly, "I predict the Hidden Leaf Village shall emerge victorious from this battle." The weather hid the outline of a figure ducking quickly behind some rocks as the older man continued, "Therefore, I shall let you three live." He paused in his speech, a primal instinct flaring up that told him another person was in the area, despite the fact that he couldn't see anyone.

"WE DON'T NEED YOUR SYMPATHY, WE CAN STILL FIGHT!" Jiraiya roared.

"Stop it, Jiraiya!" Tsunade yelled back as she struggled to hold him up, herself up, and prevent him from attempting to attack Hanzō, who had just handed their asses to them.

Hanzō was too busy focusing on the interloper to listen. He pinpointed something behind a boulder not 80 yards away and said, "You can't hide from me, Konoha shinobi. I said you shall emerge victorious, I never said you shall defeat me." Turning away from the boulder and redirecting his attention to the Hokage's students, he continued, "I, Hanzō, hereby name you the Hidden Leaf's Sannin. In exchange for their lives, reveal yourself, stranger." The newly-appointed Sannin's eyes followed those of Ame's leader as they shifted to the boulder, seeking Konoha reinforcements.

Heavy footfalls made their way to the quartet's ears, followed by a splash and then a thunderclap. The Sannin could see a large figure walking toward them, though with the rain obstructing their vision, only its silhouette could be made out. Whoever it was appeared tall, around seven feet, and judging by the sound of footsteps, was cloaked in armor from head to toe...though raised the question of how he was able to sneak up on the Sannin but not Hanzō.

**Thump…thump…thump…**

As he came closer, they confirmed that the figure – a man, judging by his stature – was indeed wearing dark green armor over his entire body, as well as an orange visor on his helmet, heavy combat boots, shoulder guards, shin guards...he looked like a walking armory. Carefully held in his arms was a metal plank with a nozzle at one end.

Jiraiya's eyes began to narrow when he saw him.

Orochimaru tried to stop any genjutsu that might have been casted, but then remained silent when he determined the figure was real.

Tsunade, however, released an involuntary gasp at the sight of the orange visor and metal plank, straining to see through the former and catching sight of a pupil-less orange eye…

It's him! This was the man who had saved her brother…though what he was doing in Ame was a mystery. Like her teammate, Tsunade thought that maybe the man could have been a genjutsu, but an outline of the Spartan created by the rain seemed to confirm he was real. Despite the fact that he'd saved her brother, reports of the green giant kept cropping up throughout the Elemental Nations, few if any positive, and yet, Tsunade had hoped that he would come back and potentially join Konoha, reaffirming her original belief in him.

Now, with her and her teammates at the end of their ropes, and her brother's savior before them, the blonde hoped that her first estimation of his character had been correct, for his decision would seal their fates. Was he going to side with Hanzō and kill them? Was he going to kill Hanzō, as unlikely as that seemed?

Jiraiya was trying to think of reasons why the Spartan was in Ame. His last recorded appearance had been in Taki when he'd fought a whole platoon of bounty hunters, none of whom had been recovered. Search parties were sent, of course...but they hadn't returned either.

These thoughts were silenced when the man asked, "Are you the leader of Amegakure, Hanzō the Salamander?" His voice was deep and gravelly, calm, yet stern. He was paying no mind to the Sannin, who were partially surprised to hear him speak.

Jiraiya couldn't contain his shock. "WHAT THE HELL?!"

"You again!" Tsunade yelled in shock.

The armored being paid no mind to them as he waited for Hanzō to answer.

Hanzō crossed his arms, looked at the being up and down. "Who and what are you?" he demanded.

"Spartan Sierra 117 of the U.N.S.C. Now answer my question…are you Hanzō?" he returned, taking a few steps forward.

Hanzō jumped off his salamander, who dug beneath the ground in the blink of an eye. He stared up at the Spartan's orange, rain-splattered visor, each staring down the other—

**BOOM!**

Neither adversary blinked at the sudden thunder, both focused on studying the other to determine who would attack first.

John was a thirty-year veteran with enough war tactics to rival Sun Tzu in strategy. He had learned dozens of martial arts and thousands of ways to kill someone...

None of which would help against someone who could be considered nigh-untouchable.

Hanzō had fought in near-constant wars since he'd been a boy. As a child, he'd taken the poisonous sac of a black salamander and integrated it into his own body, becoming the most terrifying child in Ame. He'd trained constantly with the Hidden Rain's best generals to reach a rank equivalent to and even exceeding that of Kage, surpassing everyone who'd stood before him in combat...

But never had he fought against a highly-augmented super soldier. It would be quite the new experience.

"Yes, I am. I have to say, I wasn't expecting to see you. They say you come and go, much like the wind…" Hanzō leaned closer to the giant man. "Now, answer my question, Spartan…why do you invest yourself within my business and Konoha's Sannin?"

"I'm here to end this war."

"And how do you seek to accomplish such a noble goal, Spartan?" Hanzō asked with mild interest. A man who sought to end a war singlehandedly was…arrogant. A man who would want to battle someone far beyond his league was…foolish. But to show no fear for his own safety in the face of such overwhelming strength…

That was…truly remarkable.

Spartan 117 answered by quickly reaching down, raised an M60 Magnum, and pulling the trigger.

**BANG!**

A bullet drilled through Hanzō's forehead, and the Ame-nin collapsed with a splash.

The water clone immediately defaulted when the bullet made contact with it. Hanzō had noticed the speed the Spartan reacted with to lift the odd weapon and fire it. It was loud and left a tiny smell of some unknown substance and smoke, but it still wasn't enough to take him down.

Spartan 117 looked around and then checked at his sensor; no one was around except the Sannin.

"You fool!" Orochimaru yelled as he grabbed Tsunade – who still held on to Jiraiya – and ran through the rain towards cover. For almost a minute, John surveyed the area, listening for anything besides the rain. He felt a small tingle beneath his feet, then the ground began to shake in earnest. His HUD picked up the vibrations coming from exactly underneath him.

John pressed his feet firmly against the ground and then launched several feet into the air like a rocket, seconds away from being devoured by the poisonous salamander that erupted from the earth. He landed twenty feet away – his mass creating a crater in the ground – took aim, and began firing bullets at the amphibian.

The bullets seemed to take effect as the salamander screamed in pain, green blood streaming out of the open wounds that were created. In retaliation, the salamander opened its mouth and unleashed a thick purple fog. It made contact with John, who stood there as the fog circled around him. The Mjolnir Assault Armor Mark IV provided airtight compression and a personal oxygen tank if the Spartans were unlucky enough to be caught in space, water...or even poisonous gas.

John's sensors went off again as a mini, scythe-like blade attached to a chain flew through the smoke toward him. John leaned to the left and grabbed the chain, yanking it towards him with all his might. The other half of the chain came forward with Hanzō on the other end, who immediately aimed a kick at John's head. The Spartan leaned backwards, letting the Ame-nin sail over him and skid across the rain-covered ground several feet away. Hanzō turned around, performed a few hand seals, and yelled, _**"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!"**_

Without warning, a massive fireball raced toward John at an alarming rate, but the Master Chief simply stood still, willing to take the jutsu head on.

**Boom!**

Hanzō took note of his handiwork: for several hundred yards, the ground was nothing but wet ash. Steam began to form around the area due to the elemental clash of fire and water. When it cleared seconds later, the Ame-nin noticed that there was no body. He looked around and sensed the Spartan hiding in a ditch just a few yards away.

While the man's armor possessed a few superficial scorch marks, Hanzō was mildly surprised to see that his adversary was still alive. John pulled out his sidearm, jumped out of the crevice, and began firing rapid shots at the despot, who burst into another water clone.

The Spartan aimed where Hanzō was originally while turning his head in the direction the Sannin had run off in, trying to see if they needed medical attention. From his earlier observation upon arriving, they were likely to be bedridden for days if they continued fighting.

Hanzō was nowhere in his scanner's radius. John replaced his pistol with an MA5C Assault Rifle and kept his guard up. As he began walking, he felt something pull at his leg, and looked down to see hundreds of paper tags crawl from his left leg up to his knee. He reached down and tried to pry them off or rub them away, and in doing so, caught a glimpse of the kanji on them: 'explode'.

The ensuing explosion was deafening. Like a rocket taking flight, John was thrown into the same boulder he'd been hiding behind earlier, his momentum and mass crushing it into hundreds of pieces. He landed in a crouch, boots covered in scorch marks, the impact creating another crater in the ground. His rifle had been thrown an unknown direction, leaving him with his M60 Magnum, two frag grenades, and a bubble shield.

He had to make them count.

John stood up and looked around until he heard Hanzō's voice ring through the valley. "Truly pathetic, Spartan. You have been graced with luck by surviving that move, but it will only be much more difficult from here on out." John looked at his scanner and saw no one within a few hundred feet of him, but pulled out his Magnum and pointed it over at boulder Hanzō could be hiding behind. He looked over to his right when he saw movement, briefly assuming it was Hanzō before remembering animals were around this area and could be used as distractions.

He took a steady step forward and aimed toward the left, then swung to the right as he began making his way in the Sannin's direction.

John couldn't pick up Hanzō's life signature, and there was no one alive out there except for him. When he began to lower his gun, he began to feel a slight pressure around his body, like something was out of place. The wind suddenly picked up, making the force of the rain even harder.

Another roar of thunder rolled across the valley as a bolt of lightning struck near Chief. He didn't flinch, but the imprint of the burn mark was only a few feet away and could have hit him if he'd moved to the right. He couldn't feel the ominous presence of Hanzō nearby, but there was a feeling building up inside him, like someone was telling him to look behind him...

Chief then spun around quickly, and sure enough his radar picked up Hanzō's vitals from about 20 feet above him. His head rose quickly as he looked up to see Hanzō flying at him with his chain scythe raised high. John tensed the muscles in his arms as he aimed his Magnum at him…

Hanzō saw the Spartan aim the object at him and swung his weapon at his enemy's neck to see if he could decapitate him before he could attack.

Simultaneously, there was a loud bang and the sound of something sharp slicing through the air.

A bullet exited the gun's chamber and struck Hanzō in the side of the face, shattering the side of his gas mask like glass. Bits of metal flew everywhere, some striking the side of his face and causing blood to flow into his eye from the cuts above it.

John's Magnum fell into two pieces as Hanzō's blade cut cleanly through it, like a hot knife through butter.

Chief was struck as the blade managed to cut through his shields and slice into his armor, though not deep enough to touch his skin. Hanzō leapt off, pushing the Spartan off-balance to make him stumble back a few inches. John sprang forward out of his daze and struck at the Ame-nin; he ducked out of the way, causing Chief to nearly shatter the rock behind him.

Hanzō slashed at his adversary's midsection only to see the blade glide across the armor, creating the sound of screeching metal but no mark. He had to leap back as the Master Chief ripped his hand out of the boulder and tried to backhand him.

John sprinted forward and kicked out, hoping to cave in Hanzō's chest, but the Ame-nin simply dodged it.

As he'd turned around, the Spartan had noticed that his scanner wasn't blinking. The man he was facing was far more dangerous than he would've thought, and he would likely need his rifle to defeat him. He turned to begin looking for it, but the idea left him as the ground underneath him began to shake again. He jumped up again, only instead of explosive tags or a giant salamander, John was nearly wrapped up by a chain. He flipped backwards and attached an energy grenade onto it before back-flipping expertly through the air and landing on his feet. The chain retracted, emitting a noise of clanking metal several yards away behind a boulder...

**BOOM!**

A medium-sized explosion of blue flames destroyed the hill Hanzō' had retreated behind, causing hundreds of pieces of rocky debris to fly everywhere.

John knew he had to think tactically; he hadn't come all the way here to be killed by a madman that could be shot in the head by a single bullet…if he was normal. But after three years in this world, he'd learned that few people were normal, and that even less could be killed by normal means...

But he wasn't fighting to kill anymore.

He was fighting to survive...

The real battle had just begun...and it was going to get bloody.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: A special thanks to **livezinshadowz** who was an absolute lifesaver. Now that John is coming face to face with the man whose death affects the war he's been fighting against, it's going to take everything he's got to end it. Reviews are welcome...**


	12. Poisonous droplets

**DISCLAIMER/ I don't own Halo or Naruto.**

* * *

Chapter 12: Poisonous Droplets

* * *

"_Get back in the fight."_

-John 117

* * *

**IN MEMORY OF FREEDOM GUARD**

**A brilliant writer**

**A visionary **

**A ****friend**

**RIP**

* * *

John blinked his eyes as he scraped his palm against the side of a moist monstrous stone. He needed more firepower.

Licking his lips in anticipation he looked down at his TAC/PAD and pressed a few buttons to call for a weapons drop. After a loading bar appeared along with a few splatters of raindrops the screen instantly blinked red a few times in denial.

No Signal.

The signal wasn't able to patch through the storm and John was left without any type of aerial support against Hanzō. He was only left with his current ammunition that was dwindling, and one psychotic war general who had his full attention set on him now. If he hurried he could make it back to the Pelican for more ammo. But in order to do that he would need time to get there and make sure Hanzō didn't try to escape... then again-

"**DANCE OF THE SICKLE BLADE: FALLING DECENT!"**

He didn't take Hanzō as the running type.

John instantly zoomed from his current spot he took refuge in by rolling forward. The stone that was easily the size of a house, exploded in a hail of rocks that went flying in every direction from Hanzō's chain sickle.

Hanzō pulled back his chain, noticing there wasn't any blood on it. He frowned at this. The Spartan was proving to be more organized than he thought. No matter though.

The Master chief rolled across the soaked stone before grasping his fallen assault rifle. He looked behind him through the rain and saw Hanzō's motion get captured in his scanner.

He looked through the guns clear reticle and began discharging several rounds at Hanzō's form, who speedily evaded them by just inches apart. He moved so fast that he was just a blur in the rain- nearly becoming a less than the speed of whisper. John slowly got up while aiming his MA5C rifle forward and taking a few large step towards another stone. Nothing came up on his motion scanner, but he knew Hanzō would come back. Angrier than before even.

Almost like a wrecking ball at a untouched door, John felt everything on his back become so heavy instantaneously that he slammed face first into the stone, smashing it like glass and tossing stones over to the side in puddles causing a collection of long splashes.

John pulled himself out of the stones and heard the blaring ring of his suits armored shields flare. He nearly lost a good portion of his shields and he would have to be more careful from this point forward.

John hastily rolled to the side in cover and caught sight of the dark chain being dragged toward an undisclosed location. Out of pure quickness, John sharpened his vision which caused his HUD to automatically pinpoint the chain's links more accurately. Raising his rifle forward he fired two shots at the chains links, causing the metal holding it together to snap under the bullets hollow tips.

Hanzō pulled the chain to him and examined it. It was a clean hit that cut right through the metal. He would have to remember to inspect that weapon the spartan used once this battle was over. Then again maybe it was some sort of sealing technique that could send projectiles out at near blinding speed. Sealing techniques were not one of his specialties but he knew how to preform them. But the speed and accuracy were pin point. All the same though, it was a very error-free hit.

"Good..." he began while secretly doing hand signs behind his back, creating a duplicate behind the Master Chief who was about to shoot Hanzō.

"But NOT ENOUGH!" The duplicate struck behind John as he ducked a swipe at the back of his head. He swiped his leg underneath the clone which caused it to fall before John slammed a fist in it's stomach.

The clone smashed in the stone with a great deal of force that caused a web of cracks to appear before it detonated in a puff of purple gas. He turned his helmet and pointed Hanzō who mocked him. Wherever he stood that is.

"A true shinobi must never show any weakness." He then leaped over the master chief who took numerous shots at him but missed each one. Hanzō landed behind him before aiming a palm strike in the center of his back. Hanzō surged his hand forward and slammed it but regretted it as he yanked it back and bit back a growl.

John turned around after feeling the semi powerful strike and wrapped an arm around the neck of Hanzō who was distracted. Hanzō kicked to the side in the spartans ribs but this action didn't stop him, in fact it did more damage to Hanzō himself.

John kept Hanzō's arm locked outward and launched a knee in the generals stomach, making him fly back on the ground in a heap. Hanzō quickly rolled back into a solid fighting stance before reaching behind him.

John caught this as a surprise attack and leveled the rifle forward and shot at Hanzō, but missed when Hanzō dodged the rounds and threw a collection of small round objects at him. John jumped back as a multitude of smoke bombs detonated when the belligerent general had tried to stun him.

He surged through the smoke like a cannon and began firing at Hanzō's form, who threw his sickle at John with amazing precision and spot on accuracy. To the normal naked eye it moved at near blinding speeds- to the Master Chief's though, his unshakeable eye, it didn't. In fact he could make out the detail of the dark bladed weapon as it came towards him. His brain reacted quickly as a reflex with his hand flying up and letting the dark chain wrap around his wrist.

John's sturdy fingers gripped the chain and tore it free from Hanzō while pointing the gun at the general. "Stop this."

"Talking in a fight, pointless." Hanzō murmured loud enough for John to hear. "You trying to stop me, futile." He walked forward slowly. "Your death, inevitable."

The chain suddenly exploded into smoke, disappearing in John's hands. He looked down to see what he held onto and blanched when he saw it was a paper bomb. Flinging it as hard as he could in the opposite direction to keep it from detonating in his hands, he raced forward to Hanzō and threw a haymaker, but Hanzō predicted this as he brushed off the punch by sidestepping it. What he didn't predict was the 7 foot tall man dropping his gun and replacing it with a knife that nearly caught Hanzō in the stomach if he hadn't swiped at the Master chief's wrist.

The Master chief clashed the combat blade against the sickle, and was about to shoot Hanzō with his assault rifle, only to realize he didn't have his gun in his hand. The Master Chief dodged an uppercut and ducked underneath a kick from Hanzō while ripping his sickle from his hands again.

The master chief gripped both ends of it before snapping it into two and breaking' the chain in half with relative ease.

Hanzō only shook his head at this. "I praise you for disarming me again, but taking a shinobi's weapon does not slow them down. It'll only make your demise more painful." From reports, the spartan was claimed to have near light speed reflexes and could dodge any type of weapon hurled at him, be it kunai, bombs, shuriken, jutsu's, anything. Although many, if not all bladed weapons, were practically useless, they would just simply bounce off of him. Not leaving a single mark. This was thanks to the mysterious strong green armor that could never be scratched or dented.

Not until today, that is when Hanzō left a pretty deep gash on the center front piece of the Master Chief's armor.

Hanzō leaned his head to the side when the Master chief tried to punch him. Haznō jumped back onto the top of a rock, away from the armored man and begun to devise a plan.

The spartan was crafty, he'd give him the benefit of the doubt on that. But he wasn't invincible. No one was. He'd crack the spartan's armor like an egg and squish whoever was inside like a bug.

The Master Chief ran to the rock before jumping up like a grasshopper in full bound. He brought both fists up behind his head while clenching them together, before bringing them down on top of Hanzō who sped out of the way. The top of the rock shattered into thousands of shards that pelted anything in every direction.

John pressed his feet down and backflipped off the rock before taking his fallen weapon off the ground. He picked up the pistol by it's a grip looked for Hanzō on his scanner. Looking to the left in the rain he saw a shadowy form that looked like Hanzō.

He pointed the assault rifle at Hanzō who suddenly did a series of handsigns and yelled. "**POISONOUS BREATH**!" He ripped the damaged mask off his face and puffed his chest out, before spewing a large purple cloud at John. He only performed this task when met with people weaker than he was. Since this man was displaying no ninjutsu, or even a simple genjutsu against him, this meant that Hanzō could take advantage of that.

The horrid noxious gas spread around like a snake coiling around it's prey, except this would have killed anyone who took a very small breath. Although it wouldn't hurt John. He looked around through his HUD's enhanced vision, but sighed in frustration from the increasing disadvantage he was at. Hanzō was proving to be more than a challenge, more than he had anticipated. He needed to pinpoint a weakness that he could exploit while trying to distract him at the same time.

As he peered around the corner of one stone, he noticed there was scratch marks on it before seeing a dead Konoha shinobi at his feet. Observing the corpse, he noted there was something bulging in the front pocket. Ignoring it, he turned to his left to see something on his HUD's tracker.

Hanzō observed the spartan who seem unaffected by the the poison. He was impressed by this but left wondering how the spartan was able to do this. Maybe he wasn't a man to begin with and didn't need to breathe. Hanzō jumped back when he saw the spartan rush right towards his hiding spot. Almost as if he knew he was there already.

The time was right.

Raising a hand sign, Hanzō whispered "Ignite." loud enough for the Master chief to hear.

Chief looked at his scanner and saw Hanzō was a few feet away before vanishing again.

Almost like being under the rockets of a shuttle taking off, John was instantly surrounded by a monumental explosion that shook the earth he stood on. He almost lost his footing and became blinded by the intense rays of lights.

He suddenly felt his stomach get smashed inward. Then felt a strike at the back of his head. Then an uppercut below the jaw. The hits kept coming, furiously even.

Hanzō breathed deeply as he forced the earth jutsu to strike the man on all sides. Head, shoulders, arms, legs, torso, anywhere visible. But the rocks were turning into dust when they hit him. He needed to strike this man **harder** on the already opening that he had created.

John rolled forward, trying to brush off the strikes but was getting no where as he felt the ground shake again. He saw Hanzō's presence approach him from the left rather quickly. John turned his head and raised an arm to block a chop from Hanzō and responded by moving forward and throwing a fake punch which Hanzō dodged it, and moved his head back to avoid an uppercut by the orange eyed demon.

John threw more punches relentlessly, this time though he managed to land a few hit's. When the first hit made contact it caught Hanzō completely off guard, it felt like he had been mowed down by a pack of bulls on fire. The master chief's fists began to come in a shower of strikes, battering Hanzō in his midsection. After three of the monumental punches he had to jump back just to escape the blows.

Hanzō stomach was inflamed with a raw aching agony that made him cough roughly. The spartan nearly trapped him there.

In a fit of coughs he didn't see the spartan charge him again, appearing out of nowhere in a blur. Hanzō kept evading each one until he had enough and slapped a palm against John's helmet. "Die." He breathed out as he exploded in a puff of smoke.

John heard something hissing on the top of his head and it sounded like a explosive tag. Quickly sticking his hand under the soaked paper and crumpling it, he sprinted just a few feet before everything behind him screamed in a fury of chaos. The flames touched his back and behind his arms, just barely consuming his helmet in the blaze.

He stopped when he felt a shift below him and saw the ground was splitting open. Looking on his tracer, he saw his assault rifle was 73 yards toward the opposite direction. He looked back at Hanzō; seeing the man stand like a statue as the rain rushed down his form; before running in a sprint.

The master chief knew if he stood still he would get caught in a jutsu, but running away wasn't going to get anything. He bit under his breath and sprinted towards Hanzō who yelled.** "Earth style: Mud wall!"**

A wall exploded from the ground, ripping through the stone and reaching high in the sky like a growing beanstalk. As the master chief was running toward the wall he weighed his options.

Through it or over it? Going through it might slow him down, giving Hanzō an opening. Over it could give him the opening. Deciding to go over it he pushed his legs down at the same time and flew right over the 26 foot wall like a shooting star... And right into a hole.

"**Fire style: Annihilating Flame bombs!"** The dark hole turned into a fire pit as the insides became incarnated in a monumental explosion with the flames flying out like a volcano. The flames screeched over the master chief's armor, engulfing him completely as he passed along through it. Hanzō stood afar, watching his jutsu with high interest.

The master chief exited the fire and came in contact with the ground before coming to a stop. Looking on his HUD's tracer he found Hanzō standing 40 feet away on top of yet another stone. He could travel very fast and at alarming speeds, he needed to make sure that he didn't escape.

Hanzō roared in anger. Nothing was working!

"Ibuse!" Hanzō shouted as the massive salamander while it watched John struggle to get up past the corpses littering the area. Ibuse's dark slimy tongue licked the roof of his mouth when seeing all of the fresh meat out in front of him. Once he was finished bidding his master's order it was going to be a lavish feast for him.

John looked over to the left and saw his assault lying on the ground getting soaked, just a few arms in length. So close to being back in his possession. However he begun hearing the salamander scamper towards him like a steam roller.

Pushing himself at neck breaking speeds, he rolled forward at the very last second instinctively, and grasped the assault rifles stock. Turning over on his stomach he began firing it at the enormous reptile that sat just a few meters apart from him. Half of the clips rounds managed to snag the salamander in the face, causing it to bleed even more and thrash back.

Ibuse leaped high into the air, almost at elevations John wished he could reach, before plummeting to the ground like a meteor. Slamming on the ground just a few feet away and causing enormous stones to split, Ibuse opened it's mouth wide, nearing the size of a warthog and giving John a very unearthly view of it's insides.

The master chief only had a second before he found himself inside the mouth of Ibuse who caught him faster than he could imagine. Inside the reptile's mouth there was no light, but he could make out every detail. He was neck deep in black saliva that sizzled when it came up to his ears and was glad he wasn't able to breathe this.

Moving was not going well since every time he tried to kick himself up he kept sloshing back and forth. Trying desperately to escape he didn't notice that he was beginning to slide back to the salamanders throat. he knew what was going to happen, and it wasn't good. Trying to escape through the salamanders lips was futile as he only felt himself go deeper and deeper down the salamanders throat.

His mind began to race, but he didn't let that cloud his judgment at he stuck both arms out with his legs pushing forward, lodging himself in the salamander's throat and trying to cease his movement.

The slipperiness and massive weight didn't help in his case as he proceeded to slip further down. looking down he could make out the bottom of the stomach, if he didn't escape the acid would more than likely dissolve him. Until he gained an idea of escaping. Looping his fingers at one of the grenades ring, he pulled the pin before snapping the grenade off and dropping it down in the salamanders stomach.

Hanzō looked at his summons before thinking. _'This demon was nothing. Only a skilled warrior could have lived to face me.'_

What he didn't notice at first was that Ibuse began to groan. Hanzō looked up at his valued comrade before saying aloud. "Ibuse, what is wrong with you?" Ibuse was his left hand in battle, as a matter of fact without him his name would have just been subtracted to just Hanzō. This title wouldn't matter though, he could take on anyone or anything with or without him, in fact it had only been him to capture the salamander when he was but a young man.

If he could tame the deadliest summons in history, he could take on anything.

The salamander said nothing in return but made an inaudible groan as it began to slump back and expose it's pale stomach. Hanzō began thinking of what could have affected Ibuse and wondered maybe he had eaten something that didn't agree with him. Ibuse couldn't get sick so that was out of the question.

The spartan could have possibly attributed to this.

"BRRRRRRAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHH-

BOOM

The inner walls of Ibuses' stomach surged forward before the flesh scaly ripped down the middle into two. A black liquid in the form of a wave splashed out of his stomach and onto the ground. The colossal reptile fell on it's side while roaring in agony, barely still alive at the moment from the grave wounds.

Ibuse was dying...

Hanzō looked at the gore before seeing something fly out of the summons stomach like a cannon of galloped muck.

The Master Chief, covered head to toe in thick muck stood there, but not caring in the slightest.

Hanzō clapped his hands in amusement. "Interesting. Never have I seen the predators prey escape from the pit of a stomach." He said, not really caring that his summons had just been disemboweled. He then reached for another sickle but John was quicker; rushing up to Hanzō he tried to grab the general, but Hanzō slipped out of his grasp and swung the sickle at John's neck, but felt the blade stop.

John twisted Hazōs arm and brought the man down to a crouch before putting a knees over the man's left shoulder, intending to snap it forward. Hanzō back flipped while slipping write through the chiefs knee and slamming a foot on the side Johns helmet.

Hanzō got back to his feet and spit a glob of purple saliva on the ground before it exploded in a massive fog.

John looked on his scanner and saw Hanzō blue to the left. Using the Promethean vision he searched through the thick gas. He took out his magnum and noted he was down to his last clip.

He'd have to make these few shots count.

"Why won't you die?" Hanzō asked as his dark voice rang to the left making John aim his weapon toward a dead tree stump in front of him. When John began moving he pressed a small button on his wrist that created a hologram of himself. He pointed the holograms beacon in front of the stump while he took cover in a ditch beside it. Pressing himself in the dirt, he hid silently. Waiting to get the upper hand.

He had seen Hanzō, or someone appear behind him about 13 meters. Moving quite slowly in fact. He could tell Hanzō hadn't seen him, but could more than likely see the hologram chief instead.

Just like that, he saw the blimp on his scanner appear slowly. He then saw it approach the hologram version of himself.

"You move with great valor. A worthy opponent..." Hanzō said. The sannin were one thing, being able to survive against him for as long as they did. The spartan however was just like he was described. Untouchable, untraceable, and unstoppable. Nothing seemed to faze him. Fire jutsu's, earth jutsu's, poison, explosive tags, or water didn't affect him. Not to mention he could someone see through Hanzō genjetsu's and find but exactly where he was.

However, from his analysis the spartan could be better if he didn't fight as vicious as he did. When the spartan fought he used all his energy, showing weakness and restraint in his abilities. Easily avoidable. That was his one flaw that he had taken advantage of. Just barely.

"But you are filled with rage, that rage will consume you." Hanzō accused while sneaking John. He moved his feet forward while staying at the soldier who didn't move from his spot. Hanzō continued. "What you are trying to accomplish will never work. The security of our nation won't allow it." He pulled the sickle's blade high above the hologram's head. "Now you must die."

As Hanzō came closer to the master chief who stood in the rain, he noticed the rain was passing right through him. Hanzō's eyes thinned a bit as he saw this. There was an effect of rain that once it landed on any part of you it would splatter. It didn't for John.

As Hanzō was distracted, John jumped up from his spot and through two things at once. Hanzō heard a splash below him and saw some type of ball attached to a rod sticking out of the dirt. In a matter of seconds everything lit up around him, making him take an evasive maneuver to the right, but waited and felt nothing.

When looking closer, he saw he was in some type of orb. Looking down he saw it was the staff that was in the dirt giving off the odd light show. When looking at the wall in front that shielded him from the rain, he wondered what he was in... until he heard a hissing at his feet. Glancing down at his sandals, particularly what he saw was another weird round object. Only this time it was a darkish green color with a single red light on the top corner.

Hanzō's eyes widened in shock at the objects noise, sounding like a bomb about to blow.

BOOOOM

The grenade that Chief through inside of the orb detonated.

John felt the vibrations of the grenades force rustle the ground around him. He watched as everything inside the bubble shield become incinerated in an instant. Flashes of orange mixed with yellow scattered in a flurry of misconception. The shield's main generator was struck full force, killing the power in an instant.

With the shields protective layer gone, the mesmerizing wall vanished in a moment. John looked on his scanner and saw nothing within the 120 meter radius. Quietly walking over to the smoldering ash from the explosion he scanned the area before he found... Nothing.

No body. Not even a piece of the generals flesh. When he looked closer down he saw a hole in the stone. Small, but enough to fit a body through.

John became very tense at this and thought. _"He got away..."_

That was until he heard a rumbling sound and saw something appear right below him on his HUD. John didn't know how he was able to dig so quickly but he shoved that thought aside. Speedily spinning in a circle with a knife in hand, he swung it with a backhand swing.

A loud 'ching' resonated with a lightning strike that neatly blinded chief with how close it came. Hanzō tried the best to hold off the chief with what was left with his sickle but found the man in front of him was stronger than he looked.

"Well played. I was wrong about you." Hanzō affirmed while looking at the master chief who leveled himself with the smaller man.

"You won't be getting away." John said while reaching down for his knife. Guns weren't working against them.

"Yes I will. The victory is yours spartan, for surviving this long you've earned my respect." Hanzō stated while watching the spartan reach down for a weapon. "You are a worthy opponent... But you are not ready to-" He didn't finish as the chief tried to plunge the blade in him.

The master chief quickly took his gun out and shot at Hanzō who dodged the shots and disappeared overhead from the stones. The master chief locked onto him with his HUD and began chasing the general.

It was insane. Hanzō vanished with a few seconds after bursting a another puff of smoke. John looked through his scanner's frequency, then turned on the thermal imagin in his helmet. Nothing.

Chief cursed as Hanzō escaped him. Now he had no idea where he could have gone to. There was a high chance he had escaped to another part of Ame. Amegakure was massive. There wasn't anything he could use to track him with, he had no leads to capture him- or any ways to kill him when this mission started.

As John growled in frustration his TAC/PAC glowed yellow. He looked down at it to see he had gotten a signal, very weak, but still a signal. In small lettering it kept sending security messages to him. Looking closer he saw that the Pelican's defensive measures were starting to activate. That could only mean... No.

John forgot everything else before him and changed to where he landed the pelican. Flying over corpses and jumping through anything in his path. After an unspecified amount of time of running like no tomorrow, John came back to exactly where he left his Pelican...

Only to see it smashed under and blown to pieces. Bits of metal were scattered all over the place. The wings were snapped off with wires hanging loosely from the exposed cracks. The hull was smashed like a pancake between two massive stones while it was completely flattened.

John stumbled down the slope before coming up to his only transportation back to the Infinity. Looking down at his TACPAD he was given the same results: NO SIGNAL DETECTABLE.

Great.

Managing to keep his composure, he walked up around the remnants of the pelican and found a few of his weapons sprawled on the soaked ground. It seemed they were blasted outside of the lock box. Some of the weapons were bent inward and outward, while some were bent down the middle, making the nozzles unable to shoot properly destroying the gun.

Inspecting his only weapons, he picked up a BR85HB heavy battle rifle along with three magazines for the weapon. Next to it was a M45 tactical shotgun. Upon closer examination he saw that the grip was bent to the side. Clipping the heavy battle rifle on his back he picked up the tactical shotgun before prying the grip in the correct position. Since his other clips were taken up he wondered if taking the shotgun here was a good idea.

He questioned whether leaving the pelican here was a good idea. But after looking back at the fallen airship he knew there wasn't a way to make it air-worthy in this lifetime. This Pelican was grounded for life. He knew leaving the valuable weapons was a big mistake. Even though the Infinity housed enough ammunition for a single person for life, he didn't want to be wasteful.

He searched around the area before coming upon a single pack of 8 slugs for the shotgun. He took whatever he could find and stored them on his already cramped thigh pack.

His thigh Tactical/Hard case not only housed ammunition but biofoam canisters in case his armor's injectors ran out. There was also a single syringe filled with Polypseudomorphine, in case of any interrogating was needed, and since Hanzō escaped then there could be a chance to track him by capturing an Ame guardsmen.

There was also a few rehydrated protein snacks in case of being on week long extended periods for surveillance.

A few feet to the other side of the shotguns slugs were a box of fragmentation grenades that were deep in a crack. Next to it was a magnum.

John walked over and collected what he could find. Ammon, medicine, food, and stored it all in weapons bag among the many straps and zippers. The other weapons such as a spartan laser, a rocket launcher, and among other DMR's in the area were destroyed, and no longer of use to him. They were fixable, but seeing no reason in carrying them to a place to get a proper signal, John picked up the wrecked weapons. He had to get rid of them.

Looking around the valley, he saw a large body of water. He carried the weapons before throwing them in a river.

He doubted anyone would be willing enough to go diving in this weather, or even consider going that far out in the rain.

As John surveyed his ammunition, he detected movement on the western part of his HUD. Craning his head to the side he saw something jump behind a pair of large rocks. While it covered the person he had caught a glimpse.

Securing the bags strap on his shoulder plate he approached the stones with a steady rifle in hand. He was now just barely touching the stone. He left knee and the stone were centimeters apart. As the rain came down harder he raised his rifle with the finger just barely applying pressure to the trigger.

Before he could properly execute the man or woman, he found out it was neither.

It was a little girl.

She quickly fumbled over one of the rocks and begun running from him. John tilted his head to the side when seeing this. His first instinct was to follow the girl and possibly find Hanzō.

He broke into a sprint after the only lead... Too bad for him it wasn't one of Hanzō's.

He didn't have to try and keep up as the girl slipped on a stone and scraped her arm on the ground. She sat on the ground and held her arm, silently weeping. The small girl saw a shadow form over her, looking up she saw a massive looming shadow. She crawled back in fear as the gaint satue stared at her.

Chief looked down at the girl who couldn't be more than seven years old. She was filthy and had several scarpes covering her arms, face, and legs in rags for clothing. On the back of her neck was a round bin, possibly for collecting water, but what stood the most out about this girl was her hair, and amber eyes.

Chief crouched down before setting the gun on the ground while raising his hand. "Are you alright?"

The girl didn't say anything.

Chief scooted a bit closer before saying. "Your bleeding." He pointed to her arm, making her look down at the rather small gash. She looked back at the armored man who reached in a pack on his thigh and pulled something out.

Chief took out one of the smaller versions of biofoam before coming closer to the girl. She kicked a gallop of mud at him which he stepped back from it.

'Easy...Just a kid.' The master chief processed while trying again to help the terrified girl. He asked more softly. "What's your name?"

"Konan." The girl answered while rubbing her arm. "Can you make it go away?" She asked about the wound on her arm. Chief nodded before saying. "Yes I can?"

"Also... Do you have any food?" Konan asked.

The master chief tilted his head when he saw two more targets appear on his scanner.

XXXXXXX

Far away from the battle, the newly dubbed sannin sat alone in a cave that hung off a mountain side next to a river. The cave they took momentary refuge in was dark, cramped, and very moist from the oncoming years of rain.

They were all exhausted and hungry, trying their hardest not to beat themselves up over the failure of their mission. Every single Konoha-nin that had come with them had died just less than an hour ago. Some were friends, allies, and unknown men who enlisted at the very last minute. All were dead. Caused by a single man with a neurotic personality.

Tsunade looked down in defeat. She had completed multiple missions for Kohona, most of them being from simple fence building to high secretive assassinations missions. Failure wasn't an option for the S-class missions... But she had failed this one. They all did. Not only would this mission have turned the tide of the war against all the nations, but give Hanzō the proper punishment for all of his past crimes.

"I thought he was a myth." Jiraiya muttered while looking outside of the cave with Tsunade next to him. Some of the things that the reports about the spartan didn't sound legit. How on earth could one man make an entire bounty hunter team, consisting of fifty men vanish all in one night. Hanzō had done that to about seventy under an hour. Jiraiya never looked much into it, but now fate had other things in store.

The spartan was a freedom fighter, not some senseless bloodthirsty killing machine.

"You thought wrong." Orochimaru answered while glancing at Tsunade who stayed off to the side with Jiraiya. He never thought of ever being confronted by such a man. The pale sannin thought the spartan had died long ago since nothing interesting was ever said about him.

Tsunade was leaning against the cave's wall with a few pieces of dry bread on her lap in a napkin. She hadn't eaten in almost a day and it was still a long trip back to Konoha. She didn't know how she was going to break the news to Hiruzen that the entire platoon he sent was lost. Seeing the spartan, the man who saved her brother though, was baffling. All she had heard, read, and told was that wherever he went, death would surely follow.

"Stories of him eating the search parties souls sound fake, but him being able to kill you without touching you doesn't sound exaggerated." Jiraiya said while Tsunade sneezed, causing an echo to rip through the cave. It was practically 30 degrees outside and she was soaked to the bone from the weathers predicaments, and because of it she had caught a cold. She graciously picked up a bread piece before looking back at her teammate.

"We should get our energy back up and get back home." Tsunade said while swallowing her food. "There's nothing else we could do here."

"Yeah... Did Hanzō really mean what he said? The leafs victory?" Jiraiya asked while staring at the ceiling pointy stalagmites of the top of the moist cave.

"I don't think so. Perhaps what he said on ending the war was a lie." Tsunade said while thinking back to the spartan.

"He was wrong." Said a voice that didn't come from either Orochimaru... Or Tsunade.

Tsunade nearly choked on the bread as she and Jiraiya both jumped at the unknown voice and looked around the cave, listening and scanning the corners.

"Who are you stranger? Show yourself." Orochimaru hissed. Being caught off guard like that was inexcusable.

"Lower yourself and I will." The voice said again, only this time it was closer. Tsunade listened to the voice and gained a puzzled look. It sounded all too familiar. Just for a moment she let her guard down a little.

"It seems destiny has plans in store..." Jiraiya said lazily while aiming his eyes at the end of the dark cave.

Tsunade's eyes snapped open, "Spartan?" she said when something just a few yards in the cave flickered and revealed the seven foot tall man's silhouette. Memories of him coming to her village resurfaced as he stepped into the light, just 10 feet in front of them. He looked exactly if not almost the same, minus that rather large silver scratch on his chest. Other than that, perfectly the same.

She was about to say something when Orochimaru cut her off.

"You shouldn't have come here." Orochimaru sneered threateningly. "The dangers and consequences are detrimental towards everyone now. That including you." Anyone was a killer nowadays. There wasn't a single innocent person that had not committed at least one atrocious crime. Crimes that went from thievery to murder. The innocent would either be locked up as slaves or already dead from becoming the first victims. Only the strongest would survive, and the strongest were sometimes the most diabolical to come across.

The spartan exhibited many of these traits in the eyes of countless nations.

"I don't care." The master chief said while noticing the pale man looked quite reminiscing to a certain degree. "Hanzō was what kept the war alive. I tried to put a stop to it." He said.

"You killed him?!" Tsunade said shockingly. She along with an army had come to stop his crimes only to be defeated and picked off in the first hour. Hanzō not displayed a tactical and superior skill set but many deadly jutsu's that annihilated any unfortunate enough to be caught in them. If not for Jiraiya protecting her Tsunade would have been blow to pieces.

The master chief looked at Tsunade and instantly recognized her. He would admit to saying it was either her build or hair that was a dead giveaway since blondes were very rare, but it was neither. It was her large hazel eyes that made her stand out most to him.

"No... Impossible." Orochimaru said while stepping forward. "We were trained by the third Hokage himself, and we couldn't even touch him. The forces that came with us couldn't even get close enough to him."

"I didn't kill him, but I killed his pal." The master chief began while sliding back the chamber of his rifle, emitting a loud "CLICK."

"His pal? You aren't referring to his summons?" Orochimaru asked with disbelief with Chief nodding. Orochimaru's yellow eyes became as thin as a line from that. Taking out a summons was nothing new- taking out the summons of Amegakure's general sounded entirely fictional. Ibuse was an adversary that should have never been taken lightly. He or it since the gender was never truly specified was deadly. Each and every breath it took would end up taking the lives of countless men and women.

"I couldn't catch Hanzō. The rain covered his tracks and I couldn't chase him." The Master Chief said while looking out into the deadly storm. Hanzō was still out there continuing to tear the world apart the longer he lived. Driving him into the ground was the only way to make sure this all ended. As soon as he was able to take the skies again he wold make sure to end him.. "He destroyed my pelican. Now I can't get off Amegakure."

"A pelican?" Tsunade questioned.

"It's a ship. It flies and carries people." The Master Chief answered toward them, making the white haired man laugh a bit.

"A machine that flies like a bird... Now I've heard everything. I knew you would be here..." Jiraiya said while pointing at the Spartan.

"Why were you here? You know you're a wanted man correct?" Orochimaru had seen the wanted posters. Everywhere in fact. He was wanted in thirteen different villages and by the land of Iron for questioning.

"Yeah, but that won't stop me though from finishing what I started." The spartan breathed out.

"We could kill you now and claim the bounty. Konoha is in need of a reputation in such dire needs. And what better reputation than killing the orange eyed demon." Orochimaru said as he stepped forward once again.

"Don't." Tsunade said while placing herself in front of the spartan. Startling both of her childhood friends in one instant with her action. "This thing, he saved my brother. He hasn't done anything to become an enemy. He's an ally. An ally we don't want to attck." She said while asking herself what she was doing. Trusting random people was a guaranteed way to getting yourself stabbed in the back.

The master chief was quite shocked. Here was a woman he had met only once, and here she was, standing in front of her own comrade trying to defend him.

"By the way," The master chief turned around to the darkness of the cave and said. "Take it easy, I won't let them hurt you."

"Who are you talking-" Jiraiya began, but his question was answered when a trio of children stepped out from behind the spartan's legs. They all looked ravaged by the weather predicaments. One was a skinny boy with orange spiky hair and brown eyes. One was a small girl with indigo hair and orange eyes. The last child, a boy as it appeared, had red shaggy hair that covered his eyes.

"Children?" Jiraiya asked while feeling slightly relieved.

"Even mice in the war can bare fangs. Keep your guard up." Orochimaru said as cold as ice. The master chief narrowed his eyes before he found himself standing in front of the children protectively.

"They're orphans. They have no alignment or anyone to contribute to. If you want to attack them then you'll have to get through me." The master chief didn't budge. He had seen many children become orphans, or die along with their parents in the past few years. It was the same back in his universe to, children becoming the casualties when war broke out and being caught in the middle of it. It was stomach wrenching for him to think about.

While he may have not spent much time with children he knew that many if not all didn't deserve anything like this. To be born in these disastrous times was a sickening thought.

"Is that a threat?" Orochimaru said while stepping closer to the armored spartan. He was more than ready to stand his ground against this man. He read the reports and knew of his abilities, he could take him down, easy.

"Yes it is." The master chief answered while staring down the pale man.

Tsunade looked down at the starving children with a similar strong sense of weariness. Being attacked by anything, that including children was normal now. While she had a soft spot for kids this only proved to be a weakness in the eyes of her peers. Shaking her thoughts, she gave an earnest glare at the children while sitting down.

"Give me some food!" The orange haired kid exclaimed rudely.

"Here, take some bread." Jiraiya offered. He knew a few other places to collect food along the way. Sparing the five small pieces of dry bread wouldn't kill him, and not giving the bread up would probably starve these kids.

All fear left the children's faces as they gingerly rushed over and took the bread without saying anything. They even went as far as to takes Tsunade's bread in a rapid succession too. This made her a bit livid as she raised an eyebrow and dejected at them.

The children ate the bread like their life depended on it. Taking it in. Crumbs and all. John watched the kids in pity, thinking back to a time when there wasn't bloodshed. Although he didn't know what he'd be doing if there wasn't.

As John stayed off to the side, thinking of his next move, he heard someone walk up behind him. "What are you doing here?" A feminine voice asked rather seriously.

"My duty." The master chief replied while turning and looking down at the blond kunoichi who stood her ground. "The human race... You've seen what it leads to."

"I said thank you for saving my brother. It was probably the noblest thing anyone has ever done, but that doesn't mean we're friends." Tsunade said silently. While she was willing to defend him from being attacked, it didn't automatically mean she was going to side with him.

"Do what you want. But I'm making sure you can get back to Konoha." John said loudly, making Tsunade look at him conclusively.

"Why?" Him helping her and her teammates was strange. Why the sudden change of heart? The spartan had been sighted in numerous villages portraying acts of freedom justice such as taking back waypoints from defected militia shinobi to evacuating many home from enemy troops coming.

"I can't get back to my ship with the storm, but I don't want to leave you three alone."

"We're capable of handling the situation, it was our mission to assassinate Hanzō the salamander." Tsunade said. Even though that was confidential there was no point in hiding it.

"Was this before or after all your subordinates got killed?" The master chief asked, making Tsunade furrow her eyebrows at him. She kept this up before breathing deeply and looking down at the cave's floor suddenly.

"I don't understand what Nawaki says... You being the coolest thing to ever grace the shinobi. It doesn't make sense." Tsunade breathed while standing next to the spartan who was eyeing the storm outside. "He was probably the fastest ball of fury I've ever seen, but that's changed now. He's not like that anymore." She said gaining the spartan's attention. "He's become more down to earth. He doesn't see the war as a game anymore, he's become more serious and stoic."

John wanted to chuckle at this. Even though he had known Nawaki for... Less than a year, that boy was the epitome of wildness and energy. He was a young kid with lot's of carefreeness that seemed to radiate off of him like the sun on a blistering day. Hearing that he was marured out was quite breathtaking.

"We should leave before it gets dark again. Patrols will be looking for you." The master chief said making Tsunade nod in agreement. He knew of course where the Hidden leaf village was since he had a visual of the worlds map imprinted into his armors memory log. From his current position, Konoha was approximately 173 miles East. If he could make his way out of the rain and to a secure location he could singla back to the Infinity and call for a Pelican.

"You shouldn't avoid questions spartan. Why were you here?" Orochimaru said while appearing very close to John suddenly. The master chief turned into his directions, eyeing the dark shinobi in front of him. He remembered Orochimaru now. Almost like the cranks turning he could still see him standing behind Nawaki when he almost died. The odd smile on his face next to the sight of him just standing there and doing nothing when it happened.

It made John livid. He was going to mention that incident, but first he had to answer the analytical question that had gained everyone's attention. Including the children.

"A mission." The master chief began while walking back to a more spaced out part of the cave. He kept his battle rifle in hand and made sure to let everyone know he wasn't backing down. "A mission that is long past due. A mission that can end this." He said while gesturing to the cold grayness outside.

"I must say I've never seen such a tool." Orochimaru started while glancing down at the metal plank in John's hands. He had seen him shoot small metal projectiles without as much as throwing it or even releasing the smallest amount of chakra. It couldn't be sealing scrolls or anything in that order. He came closer and said.

"What is it?"

"A gun." Came from the war veteran.

"A gun? That is?"

"A weapon."

"May I examine it?" Orochimaru asked tensely.

"No." The spartan replied while walking over to the edge of the cave, passing the pale snake. "Now would be the best time to leave."

"Now this is more like it, the Konoha sannin teaming up with the spartan." Jiraiya said while getting up and walking to the spartan's side and looking the man up. "If we survive this I'll buy you a drink." He offered while John ignored the proposal.

"It's only temporary. As soon as we get you to Konoha I'm off." The master chief said.

"Off to kill more?" Tsunade said while glaring at the spartan who in turn, looked back at her. "I've heard what you've done. Youv'e-

"Saved lives, kill marauders trying to pillage villages, and free slaves. Yeah, I get that a lot." The spartan said toward Tsunade. "Don't always believe what those posters tell you. The information is sometimes fabricated." This statement made Tsunade study the spartan more closely.

"Then what have you really been up to?" She asked while crossing her arms under her chest.

"Trying to end a war." He said. "Someone has to."

"Are we going now, my feet are swimming here." Jiraiya asked while leaning close to the spartan's shielded ear. "Don't worry about her, she takes time to warm up to."

"I don't care." The master chief said while turning on his thermal imaging system and surveying the area outside again. It had only gotten colder and the weather became even more harsher. There wasn't much to see other than the endless gray that consumed the sky that seemed to have an unlimited supply of water that never let up.

As John scanned the area in front of him, Orochimaru hissed through his nose.

XXXXXXX

As the spartan lead the way for the sannin down the single stone path surrounded by water, he kept counting how many bodies he saw on the way in. The small town they had just crossed from was deserted of any life and abandoned, minus the piles of rat chewed dead bodies that were sinking in the mud. Probably from shinobi troops passing through after stealing supplies and devouring the villages resources in a matter of days. If John's thinking was correct, the more fresh corpses in the area then the better chances that the Ame forces could still be in the area. Even with what he was carrying which was considered quite plentiful, he wouldn't be able to go on against an entire army, and neither would the sannin.

Their hearing was good... Too good.

It was close to nighttime now, and what little sun they ahd above the clouds was beginning to set and make everything even more darker, and more dangerous.

The path they were walking, which was just a single road of concrete would give them a straight shot back to Konoha no Sato. Once they entered Ame's borders they would have to sneak back into the land of fire without being detected by patrols.

Tsunade, Jiraiya and Orochimaru were still tired, barely being able to keep up with the spartan that was ahead of them. Still carrying the metal plank with the nozzle on the end.

He had suggested that they take a different route other than a single road, which could have gotten them easily spotted, but at times now he was against time. Once he was at a stationary place to retrieve a signal, he was going straight back to the Infinity and loading more weapons.

As the Spartan kept ahead, he noticed there was three extra blimps on his HUD.

"We already gave you food! Why are you following us?" Tsunade exclaimed.

Turning his head around he could see that the Sannin had stopped walking and saw the three orphans were following close behind. Not being bothered at all by the weather's extreme conditions. It seemed they wanted to be taken with or possibly found solace with them. The master chief couldn't blame them, but he wasn't fit to take care of children.

John walked up from behind and said to Tsunade. "Keep the volume down." Ame shinobi were experts at water jutsu's and they were surrounded on all sides by water. Not a very good idea to travel through alone and making noise.

Tsunade tried at giving him a glare, but heard shuffling in front of her. Turning ahead she saw the little girl, Konan, step forward with her arms behind her back. Chief stared at the young girl, wondering what she was doing. Quicker than Tsunade could move, Konan took her arms from behind her back and held them in front..

Tsunade moved back in a flinch, expecting a bomb or some type of bomb or blade. Jiraiya firmly placed his hand on Tsunade's shoulder once he saw what it was.

Konan held a small crumpled up paper, but upon closer examination it was in the shape of a flower. Chief looked down to see the girl came forward and held it out to him while the rain soaked it.

"I made this for you." She said cheerfully while smiling. The smile didn't falter once.

Chief looked at the flower a bit longer before Jiraiya said to Chief. "It's origami, folded from the bread wrapping."

Chief had heard of the strange art somewhere before but had never seen it. he wouldn't admit it but it was a very interesting piece to have made from wrappers. Very carefully he took the folded paper from the small girl who graciously placed it in his palm. He brought it up to his helmet and examined it. Looking back at the girls work, he nodded in slight appreciation. "Thanks." He put the oragami flower in his thigh compartment.

The orange haired boy stepped up. "Teach us ninjutsu..." He said towards the four, almost begging even. "You're all from the Hidden leaf, right?"

The spartan shook his head. "I'm not, they are."

Orochimaru stepped forward. "Shall I kill these children?" He asked with no worry whatsoever, making John snap his head towards him. The rain seemed to get harder as Tsunade and Jiraiya both had shocked expressions from hearing that.

"W-what?" Jiraiya sputtered at first, not believing what his friend had just offered.

Tsunade knew Orochimaru had been growing darker from the war and couple hundred missions he did, but going as far as to killing children was bone-chilling.

Orochimaru shrugged his shoulders and tried to back up his claim. "I've seen many war orphans. It's pitiful. They would be better off if we just put them out of their misery."

The master chief stepped in front of the children while pointing the barrel of the tactical shotgun at the white skinned mans face. Orochimaru blinked once. This was new. He never expected the spartan to take any type of aggression so soon. He blinked again before asking. "What are you doing?"

"Are you going to kill them? Just like Nawaki? I saw what you did and you won't be touching them." John said while pumping the shotguns forestock. Tsunade gasped again and yelled.

"What?" She felt colder for some reason.

"Lies." Orochimaru brushed off "Nawaki ran ahead. It was his incompetence that almost killed him."

John became angry at this. "I know what I saw, and it was you making him run out. Run out and die. Never would any teacher do that." The master chief growled while Konan gripped the back of his leg in fear. She didn't know why but she felt safer with the spartan by her side. "I won't let you hurt anyone again, and you won't be trying anything with these kids. Not while I'm around."

Tsuande didn't have the energy to even think of what to do. Part of her wanted to deny the claim while her heart told her it was undeniably factual. She knew Orochimaru was heartless, but this was a complete nightmare. Tsunade was trying her hardest not to scream at him, but Jiraiya beat her to it.

"Stop! You three go on ahead, I'll stay here and look after them for awhile." Jiraiya said suddenly.

"Huh!?" Tsunade exclaimed. The thought of Orochimaru's treachery became devoid in her mind when her partner had done the unthinkable. This wasn't part of the plan.

"Just so they can defend themselves." Jiraiya said as he stepped over to Yahiko, kneeled down before putting a hand on his shoulder. Comfortingly looking in the boys brown eyes. He looked back at the spartan and said. "Make sure they both get to Konoha, tell lord third what happened." He didn't know the chief personally, that was a fact. Never met him before today. Sure Tsuande had met him, but he had never seen an actual photo of him even besides drawings from witnesses reports. But the fact of the matter was, was that the master chief felt trustworthy.

The master chief looked back to the empty road that lead to the dense forest miles away. It would be hours before they even made it there. A very long trip by walking. He knew the shinobi could travel faster than normal people, and he could more than likely keep up. Either way, it would take a day or two before they entered the borders of Konoha no sato. He looked back before nodding in Jiraiya's direction.

Jiraiya nodded back with a stoic expression on his face.

He hoped Gamamaru was right about this man, otherwise the world was doomed.

Chief looked at Tsunade and said. "We need to get to the forest, up that hill should give us cover." John said pointing east. The borders of Ame were guarded by some of the best. If they wanted to make it out they would have to stay off the roads. Tsunade swallowed before nodding to the spartan. She would deal with Orochimaru later...

Orochimaru, meanwhile, only glared venomously at the spartan.

As the spartan walked ahead again of Orochimaru and Tsunade, he felt something was staring into him. He turned his head over Tsunade's blond hair and caught a glimpse of the red-haired boy watching him. He stood dead center of the road with the same mundane expression never leaving his face. He stood there, letting the water run down his crimson locks that covered his eyes from view. Jiraiya stood up before calling out to the red haired boy who walked toward his new guardian. The four then went back into the stranded burnt down village.

John then turned his head back forward to the long road ahead of him. This day had been a series of rather disproportionate events. First he failed to kill Hanzō but lost a valuable piece of equipment along with it.

As he exited out of Amegakure, he didn't know that he would indeed see that red-haired boy again one day. Only that day would be many years from now...

That would be the day, the day the Master Chief died.

* * *

-OMAKE-

XXXXXXX

Tsunade's problems

XXXXXXX

Tsunade rolled onto her stomach while in bed and grumbled incoherently under her breath. The weeks had been long and tedious, turning into one of the longest weekends she had ever endured in her kunoichi career, not to mention her beginning days as a medic-nin.

Her chest was hurting like hell whenever she layed down like this and it was keeping her up. The things she was blessed by the gods with were a real pain in the neck. And back. And shoulders.

The_ two_ things she was referring to were her duo mountains that sat proudly on her chest. Many women would fond over them, calling them gifts from heaven. While many perverted men fantasized of being the lucky one to grasp the bountiful fruits.

They were possibly the most distinguishing things about Tsunade Senju other than her superior healing capabilities.

Turning over on her back while kicking the blankets off only made things worse. She had chosen to wear an oversized sleepshirt with a simple modest pair of white underwear. But her assets were making sleep more difficult.

Ever since she turned 13 puberty struck her like a mountain slide. It was ironic in a way since Jiraiya commented on her flat chested figure numerous times as they were children.

First it was the wider hips, than the bigger chest, rounder butt, then it was the growing in height, finally, it was hair growing in certain parts...

But the chest had the most complications out of them all.

The problems with them could go on forever.

1\. They caused enormous back pains

2\. Bra shopping (She normally used wrappings though under a standard mesh suit.)

3\. Whenever she walked up or down stairs she'd have to cross her arms to not get the entire village to ogle her.

4\. The standard Konoha body armor nearly suffocated her and she had to get her's custom made. (VERY EXPENSIVE)

5\. She had to wear bras when sleeping! (Wrappings would undo themselves when she slept.)

6\. Working out with those things swinging around was deadly.

7\. Sleeping on stomach would hurt.

8\. Sleeping on back would smother her.

9\. Coughing made them to fly around like water balloons under a sweater.

10\. Self exams on her breasts took forever.

11\. Running in public was a no no.

12\. Bending over was near impossible and embarrassing.

13\. Stretched shirts.

14\. Sitting at certain tables that were at the wrong height would cause awkward squeezing.

15\. Working out required several sport bra's.

16\. Wearing stripes made them appear even bigger!

17\. A cleavage would always be there, no matter what she wore.

18\. Sometimes when reading, they would be there on the page, covering the sentences. Mocking her.

19\. Wearing jewelry, specifically necklaces would disappear between the two hills and smell of rancid sweat later.

20\. Strapless bikinis were too dangerous. (Especially with Jiraiya around.)

There were perks as well, but none of them were good right now. All she could do was try to fall asleep without slipping into despair. Turning over on her back she groaned once more as the globs pushed down on her rib cage. She was tempted of smashing her head in the wall to hopefully knock her out and put her to sleep, but she didn't want to be paying for damages for a house that wasn't fully paid off for.

Grudgingly, she turned on her left side, trying to get some sleep in the hot room that made her sweat even more.

* * *

XXXXXXX

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** For all those who didn't know, Freedom guard, someone who I could call my mentor to Halo, suffered a heart attack and passed away on August 5. Not only did this stun me but I disbelieved it at first. Something like this never happens often. But a few of his buddies told me what happened and I nearly cried. Freedom guard was an inspiration to Halo fan fiction itself. Most of everything I learned with writing and continuity came from him. It was even him who convinced me to read the Halo novels even! He was a dear friend that I will miss forever. I will be taking up a few of his projects that he was never able to finish. While I'll never live up to his writing skills, I will try.

Now, back to the authors note. Just because I haven't updated this story doesn't mean I'm not working on it anymore. That's bull. I invested 4 years of planning into this story! There were many errors in previous chapters that had to be fixed but are still not finished yet. In fact, I spent 2 days on one chapter fixing and adding new things, and everything got deleted when my WIFI deactivated. So after 5 minutes of crying and 50 minutes of trying to get my anger under control I decided to take a break from writing for a while. These passed few weeks have been hell, I'll say that. I received a very bad haircut, and by bad I got my entire head fucking shaved! I miss my hair. _(cries hysterically.)_

So anyway, leave a review/like/follow. Also an enormous dedication to Masashi Kishimoto who announced that Naruto has finally ended for good! The guy spent 10 years giving us the wonderful gift that is Naruto. The last thing cannon is the newest video game coming out this fall starring the next generation of shinobi.

VERY IMPORTANT! I recently saw the newest film 'Boruto: Naruto the movie' and I have to say... It gave me a mind numbing _**idea **_that will blow you all away...

"..."

Unfortunately I'm not telling!

Review challenge: Leave a review of what you liked about the chapter, what you didn't like, and what you would want to see in the future.

This is all I ask from you the reader.

Rules: No trolling.

Halo Fun Fact: The Bungie Studios team consumed more than **20,000 pounds** of pizza, **24,000 gallons** of soda and more than a **half ton** of bananas during the three years it took to develop "Halo 3."

Naruto Fun Fact: Kishimoto's wife was the inspiration of Kushina Uzumaki.

CHALLENGE OF THE CHAPTER: Who or what is Ibiki Morino afraid of?

To Goldspark1- Apology accepted.

-SHIPWRECK5897


	13. Once allies now foes

**DISCLAIMER/ I don't own Halo or Naruto**

* * *

Chapter 13: Once allies now foes

* * *

"_Reality is never as bad as a nightmare, as the mental tortures we inflict on ourselves."_

-Samuel Daws Jr.

* * *

They had entered the forest about seven hours after walking down the near endless foggy road. Tsunade and Orochimaru were still too tired to perform any ninjutsu and had to take a rest soon.

Tsunade sat near a log while looking above in the stars, wondering how Hiruzen-sensei would react to one of his students staying in another village for the time being. Technically their mission wasn't over, not by a long shot, Hanzō was still wanted and to be killed on sight if given the opportunity.

It was half past 2AM now and the moon was full and at the highest point in the night sky. It wasn't raining anymore after they had left the storm and the air was 20 degrees warmer. The master chief had kept his word and lead Tsunade and Orochimaru over one of the further mountains and away from any civilization. Although nothing had come up on his scanners from the last few hours.

From the previous battle, The Master chief didn't know how Hanzō was able to make through one of those punches. He had hit him once and he could even feel the bones snap underneath his fingers. Unless the man was invulnerable to pain he should have suffered some serious internal hemorrhaging because of it.

But realization came to mind, and that was the fact that the laws and physics here didn't exactly apply to any of his in his own planet. Most men could survive massive blood loss and many other impossible things in this world, but standing up to a 3500 PSI punch was incredibly upstanding.

Now they were deep in the forest on a mountain that gave a clear view of the land of rain.

"We'll stop here." The master chief said while setting the weapons bag down beside him. Tsunade nodded while Orochimaru walked towards a tree. "At sunlight we have to move again."

The master chief loaded the weapons underneath a rock while pushing a fallen log towards it, shielding it from any eyes. Tsunade watched the man for a moment before asking. "What is it that you fight for?"

The spartan's limbs halted its motion. He turned his head toward her before staring at her blankly. Tsunade furrowed her brows before continuing. "People say you kill for blood, honor, babies to eat, or just for fun. What is it then? Why are you in the middle of this?"

The master chief summed up his entire answer in one sentence. "Because I want the war to end, because it's what I trained for."

"Trained?" She questioned. Was he part of some small village? Maybe Uzushiogakure...

"Yes..." The master chief said without saying anything else.

"You should get some sleep." He began. "We still have another 63 miles until we get back to Konoha."

"What happens after we get there?" Tsunade asked. She was ready for anything now.

"I will leave." John answered to the two who simply stared at him. "My mission hasn't ended yet. Still too many enemies on the front lines."

"Who are you against then? You seem to find killing anyone who crosses you." Orochimaru said, twisting the words around.

"Exactly. If I don't put a stop to it then it will put a stop to mankind." The master chief said as he put a foot on a stone.

Tsunade and Orochimaru stared at him.

The master chief looked at his scanner before saying. "I'm going to secure the area. We leave in five hours."

"When did you become in charge of us?" Orochimaru asked while crossing his arms.

The master chief looked at him and stood still. "The second I fought Hanzō without you. Do _you_ have a problem with me leading you back to Konoha so you can finish what you started?" He asked with an unamused tone.

Orochimaru opened his mouth to say something but felt the words get caught in the back of his throat. He was right. Even if he didn't appreciate the Spartans presence, it was undoubtedly the best thing they could have gotten from the day. He also couldn't ignore the fact that there was a 20,000,000 ryō bounty on him. After the last few years on the run and killing, he had gotten bounties from all over that added up from multiple villages and organizations. If he could lead him into Konoha then they, or he, could collect the money for private matters.

It was the perfect plan...

Orochimaru shook his head. "My apologies." He would stand the spartan... For now. But once he was alone... He was done.

Tsunade rubbed her arms and felt them gain a thick coat of goosebumps. The suit she wore was a standard body suit for all shinobi that could keep the wearer warm from small knives and fire, but once it got wet it would stay that way for many hours. She was tempted of taking it off to dry, but most of her gear consisting of kunai, soldier pills, blood pills, and maps were in there. All important stuff that she didn't want to lose. After she, Orochimaru and Jiraiya arrived in Amegakure they had left their previous base camp unintended. They thought the assassination would be quick and painless. Only this mission turned out to be the first failure of her career. After they had escaped Hanzō, it was safe to assume their camp was overrun and or taken by enemy forces.

As the master chief clicked on his thermal imaging system, he could hear something chatting. Looking to the side he saw Tsunade rub

her hands together and try to keep them warm. He could tell that Tsunade was cold...

Looking through the rucksack, he took out a rolled up waterproof army blanket wrapped with plastic bindings on each end. Even though his armor would keep him at a standard temperature that didn't mean he wouldn't need it for times like this.

Walking toward Tsunade who had her hands clenched together, he held it infront of her face. She flinched back once it was in her face but scrutinized the rolled up cloth in front of her. Looking up at the spartan's visor, she raised an eyebrow.

"Its a blanket. Your clothes are wet and taking away heat. In the meantime, you need to take them off and wrap this around you." He said while gaining a series of unhappy expressions.

"I will not." Tsunade said instantly.

"Your body is going into hypothermia. Your temperature is at 60 degrees fahrenheit and you'll pass out if you don't." The master chief said more sternly. "Your choice."

Tsunade weighed her options carefully as a breeze pushed back some of her hair. Take her clothes off and leave all of her valuable consumables for the taking by anyone, herself included with a lack of modesty. During these times it was evident of deserters from villages who played a plethora of sick games and would more than likely attempt something sick towards her. It was that option or to buck up through the night in a soaked outfit and hope she'd make it.

...

...

...

"Are you going to take it or-"

"Fine. Thank you." Tsunade said harshly as she snatched the rolled up blanket. She stood up before slipping her arm protectors off by snapping the holding out of their clips and then putting them beside her. Next, she undid her dual pouches that hung below her back and laid them off to the side with the arm protectors. Then she popped the first layer of steel body armor off her body by sliding it over her head and past her shoulders. Underneath the first covering of armor was a flak jacket. Since bomb tags were everywhere she was issued to use over protection by manual scripts.

After putting the midsection armor with her other tools, she unzipped the flak jacket before sliding it down her and off her shoulders. Taking off those two pairs of chest protection not only made it easier to breathe for her but made her realize how heavy they were.

As she undressed from the damp skin suit, John thought it would be smart to build a fire for the night.

However, he would have to use a technique to keep the smoke hidden from any eyes glazing the forest. Even that they had passed the main border without problem they were still at risk of being taken by a traveling posse by surprise.

As John looked for a suitable place to build a fire, he picked a spot by a tree. It was basic survival training he was given when stranded in forest or deserted landscapes on Reach. Although most, if not all his missions involved the frontal approach of assault and didn't require much waiting. That was Grey-Team's job. Either way, it looks like it came useful now.

Digging a hole under a tree to disperse the smoke from entering the sky, he began placing leaves, bark, or twigs he found deep inside. After that, he started digging around it to give it an airway to breathe by digging pathway for it on the other side, just 3 feet away. Next he put a stone beside the hole while taking a few sticks to create a rack above the fire.

Looking back at Tsunade wrapped the blanket, concealing her bandage clad bust that he caught a glance of. She sat there protectively in the blanket, making it go underneath her butt and thighs. He saw her discarded clothes next to her creating a very wet pile. He stood up and walked over before taking the clothes.

"I'm going to put them near a fire to dry." He said to Tsunade who looked up at him. "They'll be ready by morning. In the meantime, are you injured or hungry?"

"No injuries and yes... We don't have food-" Tsunade began.

"I do." The master chief said while taking out a re-hydrated protein bar. He carried five at all times but the trio of orphans had taken three of them. He still had two left. He handed the wrapped bar to Tsunade who, at first looked like she was about to reject it, but reached out with a bare arm and took it.

She inspected the bar. Sniffing and studying the food she made sure to look at it from all angles. It wouldn't be the first time she almost ate poisonous food, nor would it be the last.

"Thank you." She said before taking the wrapping off. Tsunade couldn't read the writing on the silver wrapper, considering it was English and it was non existent in this world. The bar was dry and had small bits of something chewy in it. It tasted like fruit at first, a very dry fruit.

The master chief looked to the side and saw Orochimaru had fallen asleep while leaning up against a tree with his arms crossed. Turning his attention back to the firepit, he filled the hole with a few more leaves and sticks before tossing a fireproof match inside. The miniscule flames slowly began to devour the contents in the burrow.

Tsunade felt her skin began to warm up to the blanket after consuming the bar.

All she had on were her chest bindings that were soaked, but there wasn't anyway in Buddha's name she'd take that off. That, and a pair of underwear that was cold too. She kept the blanket close to her and watched the spartan ignite the small flame in the hole. When the fire grew bigger, a gleam caught her eye and she saw the long diagonal slice on his chest from the flames lights.

"Are you hurt?" Tsunade questioned. The master chief lifted his head and looked at Tsunade.

"No." He answered.

"That scratch..." She began, gesturing to the deep dark wound evident on the front chest plate of his Mjölnir.

"Didn't cut through. I'm fine." He said while keeping a close grip on his rifle. "His fire jutsus and poisons were ineffective." Tsunade looked impressed. Being able to survive such a beating from someone who took down an entire army by themselves was astronomical. From her perspective the spartan was everything her brother told her. A pure mystery.

"Just five hours?" Tsunade questioned while remembering what he said earlier.

"Yes. I'll keep watch while you sleep." He said. He didn't want to scope the area outside and leave the two Konoha shinobi alone while they slept. He didn't need much sleep anyway.

'_What the hell am I doing. First I trust some...THING in armor, then I strip naked! What the hell am I thinking?' _Tsunade berated herself while leaning against one of the tree's. She was at first worried of falling asleep now of all times, but after watching the spartan stand there with a clinical eye on the tree's deep in the forest was somehow... Reassuring.

The master chief, or what he had called himself was rather a stoic good man with rather heroic intentions. In fact... He kinda reminded her of Dan.

But the killings he committed outranked Dan by a country shot. He would hold that against him.

The master chief turned the thermal imaging off to re-charge before looking back at the fire that swayed back and forth.

Not noticing the pure white snake that hung above him from a branch on the tree.

XXXXXXX

They woke up five hours later like the master chief said without any issues. Tsunade's clothes were dry after being close to the fire. In fact, they were more warmer than usual. She was thankful to the spartan but they weren't home yet. As soon as she got home back to Sarutobi-sensei, she was going to ask for the spartan to get a commission as a Shinobi in the hidden leaf. She had thought about it last night before she fell asleep. If she had woken up the next morning without being killed or raped, she'd consider it. Now that she was both alive and untouched, she wouldn't deny it now.

That was hours ago.

Currently, she and Orochimaru were walking behind the spartan who took the lead. He stayed ahead 10 feet while watching both sides of the empty road. He had suggested taking the road since they were closer to Konoha.

"Your village is past this river." The master chief said while glancing at the TAC/PAD. He had managed to establish connection with the Infinity, but due to being so far and distorted, he had to manually configure the network and wait for it to collect itself.

Which took a number of hours.

He was down to 1 hour and 57 minutes and 22 seconds to go.

He could see the gates now. They were big green ones. Made entirely out of massive wooden beams with concrete lining the edges. There were red kanji marks above and around it as well. He couldn't read it but knew it had some sort of significance.

As they came closer, the master chief detected something on his HUD's scanner. Becoming rather tense, he took this as a warning and turned the safety off his assault rifle. He held a hand up, gesturing the two to stop in their tracks.

"Something wrong?" Tsunade questioned.

"Yes. I see two people." John said.

"Where?" Orochimaru asked while looking, but not seeing anyone.

"One on the left, 23 klicks opposite from the one on the right." The master chief said.

"Hold up!" An ANBU member said as he ran out of the bushes. "State your names and resignation number."

The two sannin looked at each other weirdly. How in the name of buddha did the spartan see him. They were left flabbergasted until Tsunade stepped forward. "Senju Tsunade, Ninja Registration 002302." Tsunade read off from keen memory.

"Orochimaru, Ninja Registration 002300." The aen haired man said.

The ANBU member looked at the master chief closely. "Who is this?"

"The Master chief." Tsunade said, gaining a head tilt from the ANBU before clarifying more. "He's the spartan."

The ANBU member looked at the spartan up and down. "Hmmm... The name sounds familiar but I've never heard of him. Should I though? Is he dangerous?" The ANBU asked. Other than the armor and impressive height this man didn't look that threatening.

"Yes/No." Orochimaru and Tsunade said simultaneously.

"What are you thinking? He was able to take on Hanzō."

"He failed to kill him." Orochimaru breathed out. "There's no results when trying but in the end you fail."

"So did we." Tsunade said.

"Wait a minute... There's only two of you but I counted three earlier. Where is Jiraiya?" Another ANBU questioned.

"How did you know of this?" Orochimaru questioned closely.

The man didn't answer his question but simply said. "Hokage-sama would like to see you... All of you." He gestured to the spartan who looked at him.

The master chief instantly wanted to say 'No', but this would be a first for him. For the last 3 and a half years he had been isolated and alone in the infinity. Figuring out approaches and attacks. Overall, leading him no where on a war he had no part in. Being alone wasn't painful, but the thought of doing nothing was. He didn't spend much time in a village other than neutralizing enemy shinobi that were massacring citizens. Most of the time was spent on upgrading his armor or training to be faster. He had thought and considered creating a form of truce...

And seeing that he had a clean history with Konoha, he took the chance.

"Where?" The master chief questioned.

XXXXXXX

The walk to Hokage tower was... Colorful. Many of the buildings were large and vibrant, housing many upon many citizens.

This had probably been the most time John had spent this much around people, living breathing people in a very long time. Most if not all the time he was ducking behind walls and down cliffs trying to avoid anyone at all costs. Now he was in the opposite situation. But he wouldn't back out of it easily. There was still a job he had to do, and nothing would stop him.

Konoha no Sato haven't changed much from the outside. The trees had grown a bit thicker along with the brush, but besides that nothing much.

The walk between here and the front of the gate was long and tedious, almost 3.5 miles away from the opening in the gate. After trekking through the endless road with more and more guards piling on each side, John knew, or had a feeling he made a mistake. Whenever something bad happened, it was usually when the wind was at its calmest, and right now the air was almost silent...

As he entered the building and was escorted through the narrow hallways, five ANBU operatives stood close to him... Almost like a wall and making sure that he wa locked inside.

The master chief paid no mind though, only keeping his weapons securely kept on his back and off of them at all times. He also maintained a calm stature, and cautiously making sure he didn't make any sudden movements...

It was dead silence for a few minutes. He would gain a respective glance every now and again from the ANBU who stood around them, but beside that nothing else. It was so silent he could hardly hear the men cramped up to him breathe...

Suddenly, the double doors opened and out came a man. John observed the man in front of him. He had spiked hair that was dark and stress lines running over and around his face. The most distinguishing mark about the man was the white bandage wrapped around his left eye aside from the deep dark 'X' marked scar on his chin.

"Step inside." The man said with a husk in his tone.

Lord Hirzuen Sarutobi stood on the opposite side of the desk. His age had changed now that his hair had gotten lighter and his skin became intense with very light wrinkles.

He stared at the spartan on the opposite of the room before nodding to the ANBU. One of them behind John said 'move' before attempting to push him forward. But pushing a spartan-II forward required both immense strength and muscles that wouldn't rip from the bone. The master chief instead walked forward, still slinking the large ammo bag housing 5 weapons.

As the two stared at each other, the scared man behind him said. "Are we now taking in dangerous strays?"

"None of the sort, but when hearing of a wanted man aiding our shinobi... It gets me a bit quizzical." Hiruzen said. "Now back to you, why were you there? Why Hanzō?" He questioned the silent soldier.

"..." Came from the master chief, thinking of an answer. His only drawback of coming in here was thinking that it could possibly be a trap. He didn't know the exact estimation of his bounty but it was big enough to get bounty hunters. "My duty." He replied.

"Who do you serve to uphold such a duty?" Hiruzen asked with a raised eyebrow while swirling his pipe.

The master chief stopped there. Some of the questions he could answer, but some were not very necessary since he had a feeling none of the people in this room would believe. Not to mention this would spur more questions that could result in negative ways.

"A military." He said while glancing at teen that kept him locked in a circle formation.

"Which country do you hail from then?" Danzo questioned with a half open eye.

The spartan didn't answer straight away.

"... Unimportant." The master chief said.

"What is it that you are holding?" Danzo Shimura questioned. The metal plank in his a had a nozzle with a hole on the end, and a grip where he could grab onto that had a hole for his thumb.

"Weapons." The master chief murmured. "I can't travel without them." He added. Being able to find a solitary amount of innocence on this planet was like trying to find the fountain of youth. Amegakure and Konoha were not the places to be right now on any given day...

"I'm afraid you're going to need to place them with us if you are in here." Hiruzen said while keeping his solemn look in his face.

"No." The master chief stated. "If you get the weapon you get me, I can't allow that."

"You will. And that armor of yours must be removed." Danzo said while clutching his wrist.

"I won't." The master chief said more rougher while letting his finger twitch.

"You aren't in an area to negotiate. All we have are some questions that you must answer, but following our laws at the same time." Hiruzen said.

The master chief held the rifle in hand while glaring at the ANBU who surrounded him. This building was full to the brim with them, 73 and counting. Many of them were on the outside windows, peeking through the cracks while many of them took another step closer.

"Stand down!" Danzo shouted while steeping too close to the spartan.

Almost in an instant, the master chief reacted.

He almost in the blink of an eye, the master chief launched a kick at the nearest ANBU member which sent the man flying right into a wall. The next two men were both brutally smashed together by John's bear like hands, and the third and fourth man were taken down by one slug from the tactical shotgun that turned the men into a pincushions full of pellets.

Numerous ANBU tore open through the door in a flurry of arms and legs, dragging themselves as fast as they could carry. Some dropped from the curling but were taken out almost immediately by Johns heightened reflexes.

One of the ANBU members charged John and tried to tackle him but got a knee launched into his jaw.

The rest didn't have any time to respond though when they were all riddled with bullets, courtesy from the master chief who begun wielding an assault rifle and blasting it at the doorway wildly.

Hirzuen sped through a series of hand signs. "EARTH WALL!" As he said this he hacked up a glob of mud that shielded him from the Spartan. He began doing hand signs and sent a clone in the other side to distract him. His hands flew in a flurry of hand signs before something appeared in his hands in the smoke.

"Emma, transform! ADAMANTIUM PRISON!" He yelled. A long black staff formed and tried to surround around the chief, but he rolled to the side and took several shots at it.

Danzo Shimura had seen many extraordinary things in his life... But a task force of ANBU killed before his eyes in a matter of seconds wasn't one of them. Being the smarter one in this, he evaded the bloodshed as soon as it began by entering the hallway and forming a plan to take out the raging orange eyes demon.

The master chief tore away from the center of the room and noticed all of the ANBU stood on the outside of the room in the hallway. Seeing this as an opening, he flung two grenades into the hallway before rushing forward to his only mean of escape: the window.

There was a defining explosion in the hallway that tore anyone close to the bombs

The glass broke into thousands of shards as the spartan passed on through and begun to plummet back to the ground. He bent buckled his knees when he landed e fire running off.

Inside the Hokage tower, Danzo dropped from the roof before staring at the Spartans retreating form, 'That's right... run,' he thought comically. 'Lord third wasn't able to kill you, but I won't say the same for myself.'

Hiruzen stepped out from behind the mud wall and glared at his room.

That didn't go as planned...

Hirzuen looked at the remaining ANBU before roaring. "GET HIM!"

XXXXXXX

John raced through the streets of the hidden leaf at speeds that could rival a bullet, avoiding civilians and Shinobi as they surrounded him. John was nearly at the gate, from there he could call a PELICAN drop to take him out of the hostile village. He couldn't blame the villagers for being wary of his sight, weapons, armor, and defiance to confiscate it.

However priorities were strict in the UNSC. Even though he hadn't been in contact with them for a few years, he took an oath. Section 3 paragraph 4 through 16, under no circumstances is any officer, marine, ODST, Spartan, or any military personnel were allowed to surrender weapons, armor schematics, or military bases to foreign nations without correct authorization of thee higher superiors... and the "Hokage" as they referred to him had no authority over him.

In this village, or galaxy alone.

John observed his mini map and began running towards the least populated part of the village. His feet created sounds of an angry elephant running as he took a sharp left through an alley and quickly leaned against the wall, letting the ANBU pass by, still running and jumping at full power.

He then ran further down the alley and started taking shortcuts behind stores, over walls, through ponds, and finally up a tree trunk.

He activated a Hologram to take an alternate route through the village so the ANBU would be distracted from the front wall. With a press of a button on his wrist, an alternate chief came to life from a blue faze and began running in the opposite direction into the middle of the village. He then decided to create more distractions from ANBU since from what he's seen, they sure can cover a lot of ground in a matter of seconds.

John dropped from the tree and landed on the ground while bending his knees to reduce sound. He quickly ran toward the main wall of the village while making sure he wasn't being followed or watched. He ducked near a wall on the right side of the road near a yellow flower shop and activated another hologram to take his place in the middle of the road.

He skimmed near the side before breaking into a full sprint toward another alley, making a sharp left, and cutting through a shopping district that was currently deserted. He ducked behind a shopping stand and saw a group of fifteen ANBU run across the rooftops. They ran toward east while another group ran the opposite side if them...

But while this was happening, John saw a presence behind him and it came closer to him. He somehow saw the marker move faster toward him, he then threw himself backwards into a shinobi who had tried to sneak up on him and slammed into the shinobi who banged the back of his skull on the wall, knocking him out. John leaned forward, caught the body to reduce the sound and examined the shinobi. He was middle-aged man with white spiky white hair and had stress rings under his eyes, along with a Tanto on his back.

John recognized this man...

Konoha's legendary white fang.

Sakumo Hatake.

John placed him on the ground gently, laying him on his back before slipping a Polypseudomorphine in the man's neck so he wouldn't be waking up or using any ninjutsu for a couple hours.

He looked down the street toward the left and saw the main green gate with five Shinobi guarding it. There were two chunin guarding each side of the wall, two on each side and one near the center. There were standing in perfect formation.

Bad idea. The closer they were the better chance he had at taking them down together.

John rested below a food stand and reached down for his M636 sticky detonator. It had a 12cm shell casing that was light and affordable making it a long range device. It had been developed by Akeron security during the war and was made in low quality. The grenades can stick to any hard surface and reload within 1.7 seconds and carries an ammo reserve of 3. It would have a time of thirty seconds before being detonated manually if attached to any surface with a blast radius of 8.75 meters.

Chief observed the area around the Shinobi that he would detonate. Because while he was in another village he didn't want to have more of a reason to cause more bloodshed... But now he only had one shot.

So he had to make it count.

He raised the sticky detonator near a construction site that was about 40 yards to the right. It was a single building that needed serious construction and was more than likely going to be torn down... Perfect.

Lighting up the sights, John pulled the trigger and saw the detonator end piece fly off and impact on one of the concrete walls. It affected with a light THUMP creating a small crack in the wall. One of the Shinobi noticed the sound and gained a curiosity to investigate the scene.

"Hold on a sec... I heard something." The leaf shinobi said as the captain nodded. John didn't want to kill these shinobi but he had to do what he had to do. The blast radius of the explosion was too close to the shinobi, so now it was do or die at this point.

The shinobi walked over to the construction site or partially torn down building and listened to a sound. Anything from pipes dripping, rats scurrying, and the sound of birds in the tree's were he heard a small beeping however.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOM

The entire left portion of the structure exploded with shards of rocks flying everywhere, knocking it down men and creating an uproar of birds from the tree closest to it. The closest shinobi was thrown off his feet and across the road as the building gave way and collapsed creating a very large dust cloud in the area.

The other shinobi raced toward the minimal destruction to see if their comrade who walked over had survived. John knew this was the right moment to send another hologram running through here and distract the leaf shinobi. So with a press of a button as he reached over, another chief raced toward the front entrance and waited patiently for the Shinobi to notice him. It only took around for a second to see him standing there with a calm stature.

"STOP RIGHT THERE!" The captain roared as he sprinted toward the master chief at full force. Holo/John simply ran toward another alleyway, sprinting like a bullet, while not illuminating a shadow to fool its pursuers. The shinobi gave chase on the rooftops following him and began throwing Kunai and shuriken to slow the hologram down.

John stood up for a minute to survey his surroundings and also to make sure he wasn't being watched even though he had smashed Hiruzen's crystal ball. He looked at his TAC/PAD before detonating another explosion in the village to gain their attention from him for the moment. He then heard an ominous 'BOOM' in the distance and saw a chunks of wood flying overhead.

John then gripped his bearings and ran toward the gate and was ready to bash through it toward the forest where he could call a pelican. He was able to avoid trained marines when he was eight years old and took them out with his childhood friends and soon to be squad. If he could lose them before, he could lose a village full of Ninja in a heartbeat.

His scanners however picked up a anomaly behind the massive entrance to Konoha. Upon action, Master chief jumped backwards and completed a backflip, landing not far enough away as the massive green wooden door exploded by an unknown force.

CRASH!

Even after trying to evade the oncoming target, John was literally thrown off of his feet as a foot crashed into his abdomen, sending him flying into a wall and knocking the wind out of him. His shields went completely offline as he went crashing into a building that dis-balanced and caused it to collapse on top of him. Rocks, furniture, clay and several pieces of the roof began to pile on him and continued that way for almost a minute.

The sound of glass shattering, wood cracking, blocks of clay crumbling away on top of him sounded. John however was paying no mind to that and was thinking on what had hit him. What could have possibly knocked him down and sent flying when he easily weighed one thousand pounds?! Warthogs were able to run him over and possibly kill him, but with their weight nearly exceeding 8 tons he doubted they had something that strong.

John was feeling dizzy as he felt several tons of rock on top of him when he impacted the ground on his back...he quickly shoved the massive roof off of him with all his might. The rocks flew off of him and made a rather large cloud of dust which covered his vision...He waited for the dust to clear..He knew were the woman he aided back in Amegakure was and saw she was only standing a few meters away on his radar...Hazel eyes, blond hair, 5ft 9, 190 pounds, large bust...Tsunade senju.

Jounin level kunoichi of Konoha with vast medical skills. John hadn't seen her in battle before but from the feeling of the shock wave from that kick, Tsunade was not someone to approached lightly on any given day

"And where do you think your going?" Tsunade started with a serious tone with a hand placed on her hip and a scowl that matched her demeanor. While she was nearly at the point of exhaustion she wouldn't let this man run away. "First you disrespect Hokage-Sama, then you try to leave without clearing simple questions, and kill a room full of ANBU." She took a step forward nearly yelling. "Whose side are you on?"

John replied with silence.

She looked disgusted, as if she was going to be sick. Like what she was doing wasn't justifiable and she knew it.

"..I'm... taking you in." Tsunade wheezed. She had truly not wished it had to come to this in the long run. She had so many questions and wanted answers. But now the person she had hoped for had been nothing but a lie. He was not to be trusted under any circumstances in any situations. He was being charged with resisting arrest, assault on the Third Hokage, destruction of property within Konoha with a bill that could rise into the millions, and failing to surrender weapons in a foreign nation. But most of all, the murder of a whole group of ANBU.

She hesitantly walked forward and tried to grab John's shoulder.

Bad move.

John grabbed Tsunade's forearm while trying not to break her arm and uppercutted her in the abdomen, making her lurch forward and nearly vomit from the impact of the fist. John began to try and push her off him so he could hit the distress signal for a pelican drop off.

John then tried to aim a chop at her neck to knock her out, but Tsunade quickly recovered and blocked his strike then delivered a devastating upward kick at John's jaw making his head snap upwards. The spartan-II augmentations kept his bones from breaking and or fracturing, but the underside of his helmet crashed into the skin of his jaw creating a very bruise and he began to see spots as he stumbled back.

"Is that all you got?" Tsunade said her fists raised and ready for more and wiped the spit away from her mouth. John clutched his head and concentrated to get a clear view on the fight. He shouldn't be losing to someone who's only seen war for a few year while he's fought in one for the majority of his life.

John shook his head and looked back at Tsunade who took similar fighting stance with fists raised, neck down, legs apart, right leg forward, and loosened his body.

The two stared at each other.

Golden visor met brown determined filled eyes. John pressed his emergency beacon on his palm with his index finger signaling a pelican dropship to come by in.

_15 minutes for the arrival..._

John noticed that Tsunade was still tired from the mission in Ame which actually gave him leverage. She was almost out of Chakra and still had a few injuries from fighting Hanzō . Also, she had never seen one of his guns before, making this fight end very quickly. But, he had to remember not to kill her, otherwise Konoha would have him chased down toward the ends of this planet.

So the plan was simple... Tire out Tsunade without killing her.

John had to at least tire her out from chakra exhaustion in order to make it to the pick up point without any distractions. From reports around the elemental nations and eyewitness accounts, Tsunade could heal herself expertly and be ready for battle within minutes. But he was on a limb here since he had to fight without killing her. So this would just make things even more difficult...

But then again... He makes difficult situations interesting.

Tsunade rushed at chief with Chakra dash and aimed a right strike at chief which he ducked, followed by a left strike which he leaned back and avoided it by inches.

You could hear the wind being sliced through by the speed of her strikes making it sound like she was aiming to knock chief out or possibly break his neck.

He then saw an opening and kicked in the side sending her rolling. She got up and rushed again to try and hit chief with several punches and strikes, which chief either caught or blocked.

Tsunade then threw several shuriken at chief that distracted him for a split second, Tsunade rushed forward at an alarming speed at chief and punched him in the shoulder making him stumble back a bit, followed by a spin kick to the face that sent him tumbling into a wall making it crack under the force and pressure.

Chief flipped onto his feet and shook off the growing pain in his shoulder. He raced forward at an alarming speed and threw a right palm strike, Tsunade dodged it by leaning toward the left and aimed a right hook at John, but he ducked and retaliated with a kick to the midsection, but Tsunade blocked it with one hand and John used the other leg to launch a kick at her face but she leaned back and out of it's reach.

Tsunade spun John in the air by yanking on his leg she caught and he fell flat on his back. Tsunade tried to tackle him but chief rolled backwards, wrapped his arms around her waist and redirected her into a wall. She got up and growled while using medical ninjutsu to heal any injuries caused from the impact.

Tsunade launched a spin kick, John leaned back before throwing a haymaker, Tsunade countered with a chop to the shoulder that made him sink in the ground from the force of the blow. John threw a fake punch and tried to deliver an elbow strike to her face, but Tsunade leaned forward and ducked. John was getting tired of this and clapped on Tsunade's ears causing her to nearly rupture an eardrum. Tsunade stumbled back clutching her bleeding ear, before throwing a shuriken that bounced off John's chest with a "CLINK".

John raced forward to try and throw a right elbow strike at her, But Tsunade grabbed his arm and performed a shoulder takedown making chief fall flat on his back. Tsunade then raised her foot to try and step on him only for chief to catch her foot and keep it held on a few inches away from crushing his head.

Tsunade started to apply more pressure while John was using every little ounce of strength he had left to hold back the foot that could kill him. He growled as she began pressing down so that his hands were failing him as the ground began to crack.

Knowing he could very well get crushed in this position, John raised his own leg up and kicked Tsunade hard in the back while somersaulting backward. Tsunade stumbled forward but regained a thought and performed a right spin kick to Johns head, but John held up his forearm, and grabbed her, gripping her leg tightly and swung her into a wall like a bat.

Tsunade slid down in a crouch breathing heavily, before rushing at chief raising another kick toward cheif ,that struck him on the right side of the chest sending him into a pile of crates that exploded into thousands of shards of wood, and collapsed on him. John groaned before pushing the shards of crates off of him, and standing slowly up. He looked forward to see Tsunade standing in a battle stance with her right hand raised into a a legs spread, left arm behind, and if looks could kill chief would have died exactly 117 times...

John followed his own battle stance which was a form of boxing stance with his legs spread apart, fists raised, chin tucked down, his back arched, stomach sucked in... and he charged.

Tsunade launched herself in the air before shouting **"HEAVENLY KICK OF PAIN!"** She raised her right leg attempted to squash John, but he rolled backwards when she shouted a move.

Who does that? Who shouts their move?

Tsunade impacted the ground creating a large tremor and several stones to become massive jagged rocks erupting from the ground. Tsunade then stood out of it to see john standing there reaching for his sidearm. He pointed at Tsunade before and pulled the trigger...

POP!

The M60 magnum literally went off like a bomb in chief's' hand. Shrapnel impacted against his helmet and it would have punctured his skin not for his armor. His handgun though exploded for no reason...

Chief examined his hand were the gun was originally...he then focused and saw Tsunade's face remain unchanged.

"I noticed the weapon you used sends metal projectiles very quickly out of the end... So I decided deal with it when you were distracted." Tsunade said as chief dropped the now useless pistol and took his holstered knife out.

The blade gleamed in the sunlight as John held it in a reverse grip. He raced forward to plunge it in Tsunade's calf, to hopefully slow her down in order for him to escape.

Tsunade however grabbed John's forearm and placed another hand on his forearm as chief placed his other hand on the handle of the blade adding even more pressure. Chief and Tsunade were now in a battle of strength. Tsunade pushed back while chief pressed harder, the ground beneath Tsunade began to crack until Tsunade started to lift her foot out and walk very slowly forward pushing chief back. chief was struggling against this woman at full force, who was literally pushing back eighty-nine metric tons. What is she?

Tsunade shoved John back as he skidded and halted his motion.

This woman was incredible...

She was very dangerous...

But he needed to finish this quickly.

He threw his knife and ran forward while she was distracted and aimed a left kick at her, but she caught his knife with one hand, and caught the leg aimed at her midsection with the other. She bent his leg causing him to fall and tried to plunge the knife in his knee but the knife bounced off the alloy armor and made her arm shake from the vibration.

John aimed a palm strike at her face knocking her back. She clutched her bleeding nose, and dropped the knife.

John rolled up into a low stance grabbed his knife and charged forward, Tsunade flipped over him and sent seven chakra infused shuriken that caused moderate damage to his shield, She landed on the ground and sent a flying kick at johns exposed back, john however dropped like a rock and Tsunade sailed over him.

John was trying to think of a strategy of beating her. He then thought back of her opening when fighting Hanzo... her feet. John spinned his knife and threw it at her feet, she looked down for just a second...and that was all that John needed. He kicked dust up catching her in the face and causing her to go into a fit of coughs. John then did a leg take-down and used Tsunade's own weight against her while applying pressure to her back with her arms, and resting his knee on the middle of her back.

"GET OFF ME!" Tsunade screamed as John grabbed the back of her head and slammed her into the ground hard enough to gain a grunt of pain from her.

She was not going down without a fight.

"You need to learn to be-

**POOF**

The Tsunade underneath him had exploded in a puff of smoke and was replaced by a log.

Substitution Jutsu... How much he despised that Jutsu.

John got up and looked toward his HUD mini map.

HUD:Target approaching; From behind:

John immediately stood up and began to listen...

He had trained himself to a point of reacting almost instantaneous to strikes and sneaking...

He kept his head turned to the left while making a fake motion toward the now destroyed gate...

He heard thumping behind him and turned around to see Tsunade dashing at him using chakra dash and lunging at him with her left fist raised coated with chakra, about ready to deliver one of her famous punches that could split mountains.

Chief had shrugged off swarms of bullets for almost 33 years and they couldn't hurt him. That was after he had received his MJOLNIR armor, before that he would have to take a bullet and have to learn to survive from battles with insurgents.

He had taken almost thousand of plasma fire from covenant troops on hundreds of planets that could seriously leave horrible damages throughout his military career.

But on some occasions, he could deflect incoming missiles with his bare hands...

But this was a feminine missile with the raw power of a Nuclear bomb, flying at him like a bullet.

This could kill him if it hit anywhere seriously vital.

But John did what he thought of. He stood still, lifted his right hand...

And caught it.

KAAAAAABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!

The sound wave from catching the punch was so intense windows were blown in, doors were blown off their hinges, building shook slightly, and it was heard for miles around... John's hand felt like it was on fire and probably suffering from a major blood blister from stopping a punch at this caliber. He was amazed by this woman's combat, overall strength, and will.

_"Better end this now,"_ John thought as he reared his head back.

When the dust cleared Tsunade was shocked to see her earlier savior had not only held on his own in combat against her, but was nearly as strong as she was and was able to stop one of her worlds famous punches without breaking his arm. "This...isn't-"

But before she could finish her though ,she was met by a devastating headbutt from the spartans titanium alloy helmet.

She flew back onto the ground and clutched her skull that was bound to have cracked. She felt a hard jab above her breast and two more, one above the other breast, and another directly on the shoulder. Tsunade then felt a very hard jab at her knee and it felt numb. She opened her left eye and glared intensely at the spartan who stood above her. She was pissed, no, she was beyond ENRAGED!

SHE WAS GOING TO RIP THIS MAN'S ARMS OFF AND BEAT HIM TO DEATH WITH THEM WHEN SHE GOT THE CHANCE!

"I'll rip your balls off you bastard...then I'll make you eat them.." Tsunade said as she spit angrily at John. She tried to get up but felt no feeling in her arms. She tried to move it and still felt nothing. She screamed at the spartan."WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME!" She yelled as she struggled to get up and maul the man.

"Nerve bundles in your deltoids...I made sure you won't get up," John said as he looked down at the claimed strongest Kunoichi continued to struggle."Looks like it worked."

She had a black eye, busted lip, bleeding hear, a concussion, several bruises, and scratches. John was suffering from an enormous pain in his hand, probably nerve damage, but that was it. Other than that he was 100% healthy.

John heard the voices of hundreds of villagers, and his HUD picked up several shinobi coming at him from all sides. Johns pelican was almost there, and the least shinobi were from the North, john decided the best route would be that way. John turned around and began walking as Tsunade kept grunting to get up. He stopped twelve feet in front of her and looked back at Tsunade who was struggling to get up. Seeing her horribly injured, just for following orders, John felt something he hadn't felt in...a very, very, very long time.

Sympathy.

This struck a chord deep down in John seeing this woman whom he had beaten just keep trying to get up and win. She was only doing what her village gave her as orders, and from what he had read in the history scrolls her grandfather Hashirama Senju was a hero, her great grand uncle Tobirama Senju was also Hokage and sacrificed himself in the first shinobi war, plus Konoha was filled with good citizens.

Now every villager would have see him as a villain, enemy, foe, and a bloody mark to a future alliance.

John had only felt this way once in his life he felt sympathy for the loss of Samuel and grief. Samuel was his best friend and one of the bravest spartans he would've known, he met sam along with his friend Kelly on reach during training, and the three stuck like glue after that, Sam however was killed within the war with the covenant after fourteen years of service.

Then Kelly, then Fred, then Linda, then Johnson, Cortana, Lasky, and so many more.

After they all died, John was devastated. Not because he lost his only friends, but he lost them and he could have saved him. But he had a mission to do. And it had to be completed to get back home.

For that was his job, to protect humanity...

Soldiers...Humanity...

...

...

..

.

Are they the same? Is he a machine? A robot given orders and had no other meaning than those orders. If he was a soldier, then what is this feeling.

They wanted to look through his memories, confiscate his weapons, armor, and tell tell them where his base of operations was, he simply defended himself. Nothing more. So why was he feeling this way? WHY?

He looked back at Tsunade, who looked at him with anger in her eyes.

It was a surprisingly nice day.

A few clouds, the sun was visible, and a soft breeze that John could hear but not feel.

Soldiers...Humanity...

He then said two words she'll never forget for as long as she lived.

And neither will he...

"I'm sorry." He uttered.

John never thought he would ever say that...EVER.

And like that, he was gone, leaving a confused Tsunade in the rode as ANBU medics arrived to care for her.

Soldiers and Humanity...

Are they the same?

XXXXXXX

The master chief kept scaling the sides of tree's, watching as dozens of shinobi spurred by. This wasn't how he planned it. No where near how he expected it. But he knew something like this would happen. The shinobi couldn't be trusted, they were all the same.

Liers.

As John looked through the thick trees, he could see a small dark object in the sky getting bigger the further he looked. His HUD zoomed in... Showing it was the pelican he called for.

Dropping from the tree and hitting the ground, John rushed over a small river by jumping it before speeding past a few more of the trees.

The Konoha ANBU had the forest around the village heavily protected. Anyone who was caught outside the gate was either executed or taken in as a prisoner.

John kept running until he came to a cliff. He stopped at the very edge while sensing a dozen or so targets escaping from the forest. Turning back he saw tens if not dozens of them everywhere. In the trees, behind trees or just exiting from bushes.

"You can't run... And you can't hide." Orochimaru said while stepping out behind a tree.

The master chief simply stared at him. "..."

"You've committed crimes against Konoha, what do you say in your defense?" A Konoha shinobi with scarlet eyes asked.

"..." Replied the spartan.

Most of the shinobi began to come closer to the spartan, thinking they had him cornered in like a rat.

As the master chief took a inch back, his boot caused a chunk of the cliffs edge to crumble. He looked down at the nearly 300 foot deep plummet... Before a thin smile formed in his helmet. He knew he could take them... But he decided not to, because he had a way to escape.

He let his hands grabbed a hold of a fragmentation grenade as he slid his finger through the ring, before dropping it on the ground, bouncing a few times by the tip of his boot.

A pair of eyes widened when he saw the round dark object by the Spartans boot. Before be could do anything though the spartan slammed a foot forward, sending the grenade into the group of shinobi like a soccer ball.

As they scattered, the master chief stepped off the ledge and vanished from everyone's view. He fell off the side of the cliff like a rock down a well...

The grenade tore the ground it stood on to shreds, sending shrapnel and dust everywhere. No one was hit but the trees and shrubs soon caught fire. Many of the shinobi managed to evade the grenade after watching Orochimaru run away from it, and the remaining ones jumped onto the trees.

Orochimaru looked back at the cliff and so no one there, he cursed under his breath, not knowing the master chief activated the pelican's cloaking device and was merely under the cliff.

The master chief flew off... Not knowing what he was up against in the next coming hours that would decide the fate of the world he now stood on...

* * *

XXXXXXX

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I bet you weren't expecting a quick update?

This battle scene was produced by me and Freedom Guard back in September 2014. Tsunade's personality was probably the hardest to pin and allow her to gain trust in the spartan, because in both manga and anime,_ (which I both read and watch respectively)_ she's depicted as a bitter woman with lots of pained memories. But this takes place before that, changing her in many ways. Anyway, the rough rapids are coming as you can see from this chapter. You all should know, I aim for unpredictability. So don't be starting to assume Chief is going to die... Nothing can kill the chief. It's a writer's job to fool their readers on a regular basis. Maybe what I said was _true_ or maybe what I said was a **lie**. Either way, don't expect, expect the unexpected.

Or be a bunch of assholes and flame, doesn't bother me.

Now last chapter I mentioned I would be taking over, or in a lack of better terms; adopting Freedom guards now authorless stories. I wanted to say that I have to figure out which ones are in my ability to adopt. I can't read minds so I don't have any fucking clue what he was planning or thinking of writing. I have, in a way, replicated a writing style similar to his. But that is it. He was a true introvert like my other favorite authors and I don't have that type of thought provoking plot planning... It would be a shame for me to fail at keeping his stories stay alive, but a disgrace to leave it on permanent freeze.

I don't know what to do.

I need to think.

Someone did mention that John's gun can be stolen. I have something in store that will null that risk for any perpetrators in the future. Also Hanzō surviving was way better than what I had planned in store for him, besides, if I had killed him off I would have replanted the entire story from square one.

He will make an important role in the story... You just gotta wait.

**Review challenge: Leave a review of what you liked about the chapter, what you didn't like, and what you would want to see in the future.**

**This is all I ask from you the reader.**

**Rules: No trolling.**

Also congratulations to Flame1200 who answered my question correctly. The answer to Ibiki Mornio's fear: Is Orochimaru.

Halo Fun Facts: Cortana's face is based off of Nefertiti.

Naruto Fun Fact: Both Minato Namikaze and Hinata Hyūga are similar in many ways.

Both believed in Naruto/Kushina before anyone else.

Both are quiet, timid, which is polar opposite of their significant other.

Both wanted their significant other from a distance.

Both saved their significant other when they needed them the most.

CHALLENGE OF THE CHAPTER: What does Kishimoto regret from doing in Naruto?

-SHIPWRECK5897


	14. Jinee

**DISCLAIMER/ I don't own Halo or Naruto**

* * *

Chapter 14: Jinee

"_Environmentalists should like fracking for its relative cleanliness. But they don't. They have made a bugaboo out of the chemicals in fracking fluids, which supposedly can leach into groundwater sources. I'm convinced they're dead wrong. Ultimately, good technology with a cost advantage will win out over paranoia."_

-Kenneth Fisher

* * *

Tsunade glanced down at the yellow tinted paper in her hand. Her hazel eyes continued to roam over the ink kanji over and over again. Absorbing each and every detail down to the very line.

_[WANTED ALIVE]_

_MASTER CHIEF /SPARTAN-117/'THE Orenjiaido Akuma'_

_**APPROACH WITH CAUTION**_

_**Do NOT Approach alone**_

_**Skilled in taijutsu, hundreds of irregular killing methods, skilled in infiltration, adept warfare tactics, and known for unusual illusion techniques. Almost impossible to sneak up on. Has been reported to have killed at least 1,200 nins and responsible for dozens more. Multiple kidnappings have been reported but not proven **_

_**Armor is said to be 'unbreakable'. Speculated at being fireproof, scratchproof, and blast proof.**_

_**Information**__: Subject is a highly trained individual carrying multiple unknown weapons. Reports show that 'Spartan' works in groups after being spotted in many nations in a 56 month period._

_**Description:**__ Very tall 'male' in green armor with an orange round face, about 7 feet tall, carries metal plank. No mouth, ears, or eyes have been seen._

_**Affiliation:**__Unknown_

_**Wanted For: **__13 counts of__Murder, 23 counts of vandalism, 170 counts of destruction of private property, questioning, assault on Hokage, Assault on Hokage tower residence, 15 counts of assault on ANBU, Numerous counts of conspiracy against the Hidden Leaf, brandishing weapons without consent or permits, and use of deadly explosives. _

_**Reward: **__30,000,000 Ryō_

_**Bounty Holder: **__Konoha No Sato treasury_

_**If you have any information regarding 'SPARTAN-117', please report it to Hokage tower immediately. Any and all information that proves to be helpful will be met with a small reward. Any or small information withheld will be seen as treason, which will be met with imprisonment inside Konoha's torture and Interrogation force cells.**_

This wanted poster had been issued just three days after what happened in the kage tower. It had taken 2 hours to write out, an entire day to print 10,300 copies, and more than one day to spread them around the village to get the word out. Now this would have doubled the Master chief's overall bounty up to 50,000,000 ryō from the previous 22,000,000 ryō. Making hundreds of shinobi in the hidden leaf begin to send out search parties and try to claim the reward.

The crimes he was facing before or nothing into comparison to today's standards.

Hunter-nins from all around the west would group together in hopes of capturing the target by surprise. While few were steadfast and were sure they could take on the Master chief without problems coming their way, some were planning on pinning the chief in a corner once they were given the chance.

There had been many people to reach fifty million in the bingo book, but in such a short time was pure craziness. It was only a matter of time before the bounty head was anything but a free man. Especially now in the war time, there are many defectors who spent most if not all their time hunting for the latest bounty.

Many who were in the taste for hunting and searching we're in for a real treat now, knowing the next catch was the Spartan. Something that had not been really seen but spoken of rarely.

While it took a full day for Tsunade to collect her chakra and heal all of her injuries, she managed to sustain her livelihood. Injuries that could have killed her if she hadn't fought against the chief with all her might. The only thing though she couldn't heal was her pride, which had been obliterated into nothing but dust that day.

She had been defeated - not once - but twice. All in 24 hours! The first was a minor mistake after underestimating her opponent which was expected since he was the leader of an entire nation, but the second time was a sign to her was a warning. She knew who she was up against she was prepared both physically and mentally. But getting beaten by an unwarranted shinobi, warrior, who she had never in her life dreamed of, was a sign to her that she needed to be more careful and choose her battles more wisely.

It was telling her that she needed to be less tenacious with her battles. She was beaten by some nobody with only armor and weapons. It was one of the biggest atrocities to her career. While she wasn't adept to loss in battle, it became serious when it came from someone without chakra. Not to mention the Master Chief could have very well killed her if he wanted to.

But he didn't. He spared her. Even after all the horrendous murderers he committed on a day to day basis... He let her live today. And then he apologized?! She wasn't fooled by him. Not anymore. TO her it was all smoke and mirrors, not some killer instinct mentality. It was nothing but a facade.

Not only was he a complete mystery, but a walking behemoth who didn't seem to get hurt. That was the one thing that she couldnt' stress over enough. Ninjutsu wasn't only ineffective but a waste of chakra as well. He had been hit by almost every single one of Hanzō jutsu's, poison, sickle fire, and most of all the attacks from Ibuse... But kept on coming for more without anything held back.

Her taijutsu - which was stated to be near unsurpassable by most of her peers, was obsolete to him. Someone to shrug off her punches and kicks like they were nothing only made her opponent more fearsome to face. When she punched him her hand was throbbing for hours afterwards.

While she was able to punch holes through solid stone, slice the ground with her finger, and sometimes be able to lift things 25 times her own weight, for some reason when she punched him it had hurt so much.

It left her fingers numb for days, which was something that scared her.

The Master chief was formidable.

Justus' didn't faze him.

Raw force _couldn't_ stop him.

_Nothing _seemed to hold him back.

But she had caught his one slip up; his weapon specifications specifically. Is probably the only thing she could use against him by now; and there was going to be a next time. The Master Chief was a dangerous threat to Konoha and all of its residents. Letting someone live who had not only made a mockery of its ANBU but Hokage was a foolish idea that cannot be left unwarranted.

Furthermore, how he escaped in just under an hour. That was even more amazing.

While he may have been untouchable with it, she found a way to bypass it. The metal gripped object that sent small piercing pieces of metal or something at high speeds while burning at the same time. She didn't know what it felt like to be hit by one but she wasn't willing to find out. After seeing how rigid he was with his weapons before. She had decided to slip a rolled up explosive note in the hole on the end while he wasn't looking - which worked.

She had to keep that in mind for the future because she undoubtedly would come across him again.

The spartan's betrayal though wasn't what she was thinking of currently, rather her teammate that came back with her; that being the pale snake Orochimaru. She hadn't spoken to Orochimaru since the day the spartan escaped. She didn't want to talk to him let alone look at him. She was too tired to confront him, let alone kick his ass with everything going on. She didn't let the thought of Nawaki being nearly killed by her teammates action go either.

Tsunade didn't know how to approach the thought of asking him or getting him to spill the truth. She wasn't afraid of the answer, but the anticipation of knowing the truth was eating her alive... And beginning to turn her cruel.

"Hey sis! What are you looking at?" Nawaki asked as he came to her bedside in a brisk stride. He had changed a bit from the last three years, growing a few inches taller. His hair stayed the same style and the blushes on his cheeks were long since gone. The scars above his eyebrow and and cheek stayed though. Not very noticeable but still there.

He wore a longer set of darker pants with a lightweight mesh suit over it. On his chest was a thicker blue short sleeve coat with a thicker padding of leather inside. He wore quicksilver arm bracers and had his Konoha headband proudly displayed on his forehead.

"A wanted poster..." She muttered the first part sourly. "For the spartan." The last part though came out a bit louder.

Nawaki grimaced at the thought. "You had to bring that up."

Even though the poster's had been put up weeks ago, he never really noticed it until now. But in reality, he didn't want to read it... In all honesty, it did nothing but raise his resentment towards him.

When he had heard the Spartan saved his sister and teacher from the target they were sent to kill, he was over the moon delighted. Not only had he saved him, but his sister as well! His own flesh and blood. He was ready to meet the Chief again and maybe be a partner with him on missions... Only to hear that he beat his sister to a pulp, killed a handful of highly trained ANBU members like they were rookies, and attacked Lord Third.

Viciously.

His mental opinion on the spartan changed completely after that, almost like the Red Sea parting down the centre. What was once a shimmering sign of hope had been completely annihilated. It was earsplitting to hear the spartan was not seen as an angel or hero anymore, but a backstabbing lowlife who was going to pay with blood. His blood.

He was assigned to a D-rank mission that day, walking someone's dog on the further side of the village. The sounds of explosions didn't really alert him of any danger, as a matter of fact he never heard a single one. He had no idea they were under attack until making a loop around the villages gates, seeing them smashed in and his sister was seriously hurt.

After the mission that nearly killed him he had wanted to do it again. Resumed his duties as a shinobi that is. It was something he had trained for most if not all his life and was taught about since the day he could walk. Most specifically though, he wanted to try and resume a mission that he had taken under his teacher's guidance.

Thinking it was probably the best one out of them all.

He also wanted to find out where his teammates were, attempting to search for their bodies that were still in Kumo, at least through all the fuss and near death he endured. He wanted to give them proper burial if he ever found something to them. It seemed to be the most logical reason to do now since he had survived and they didn't make it. He was obligated to make sure that their memory did not go down in vain.

Unfortunately enough, Hiruzen kept on giving him D or C-rank missions. Never going above but always below which infuriated Nawaki to no living end. There was also the indisputable fact that their bodies are no more than bones by now. During these times After scavengers stripped all the bodies of important consumables, wild dogs were prevalent to the area and would feed on corpses from previous battles.

The news from Hiruzen haunted them until this very day... But there was nothing he could do.

He went to the massive grave site where all of the others from this war had died and went to their new graves. He was shocked to see that his grave was still there, since he was reported missing and had forgotten to take it down. Looking around at the massive collection of graves he was almost brought to the point of tears to see how many people he had known were there. From the school he was in, the Ninja Academy, 9 students who were in his class hadn't made it to this point in time... Making him one of 6 now.

He wasn't going to be like them, not in this life. He's swore on his teammates grave that day.

"Yeah, can't believe he'd attack gramps like that. The bastard." Nawaki muttered. He wanted to believe the spartan was good with every sense of ability he could muster, but the spartans intentions as of the past few weeks were the exact opposite of nobility. "I think he was put... In a spot where he couldn't think, you know?" Nawaki chidded. "He could have been... Scared."

"I don't know, but I have to get back to work soon at the medical institution." Tsunade said while pulling up her medical blouse and tying it around her neck. The past few days now, dan had been restless when it came to Tsunade's healing... So much so that he was avoiding her altogether. Why? She didn't know and she didn't ask. Plain and simple. She was going to force him into anything and vice versa.

"What was he like that night? The night he was with you?" Nawaki questioned for the twentieth time this week. Tsunade sighed, knowing he would become more ruthless with the questions. She looked at him sternly before answering tiredly.

"Well, he gave me some food, and told me to take my clothes off so they could dry." Tsunade trailed off at the last part. Not only was it embarrassing but demotivating to her own pride.

"Oh - wait, what?" Nawaki exclaimed at the end. Being completely cut off he didn't realize that his fingers dug into the wanted poster.

She never said that before. Not until now.

"My clothes needed to dry, so he made a fire and put them near it." Tsunade explained further. When she thought back to it the spartan's action were nothing but noble. He didn't keep his eyes on her and when he did he only looked directly into her eyes when he spoke to her.

The only thing she did not approve of was threatening her teammate, so much as accusing Orochimaru of trying to kill her brother...

He would never do such a thing.

"Oh... So he's not a perv?" Nawaki questioned. His sister's former teammate was the self-proclaimed superpervert, and so was her teacher Hiruzen.

Maybe the spartan was an even bigger one.

"I don't know! He could be a woman for all I know! He didn't do anything though." Tsunade exclaimed but wanted to think of a better answer. Getting asked to strip by a man who in all rights, defied the impossible by eerie movements and unknown tactics, was a new learning experience for her. Something that she would hopefully tell her children one day when this was all over... That's if she ever made it to through this war alive.

"A lady who sounds like that, yeah right!" Nawaki shuddered... But at the same time blushed a little at the thought of two women going at it. Tsunade saw the look spreading over her brother's face and slugged him in the ribs.

"Good... One." He said while holding back a wheezed tone. He was a growing boy with hormones raging and couldn't exactly go and starting a love life during these bloody times. Even though his sister was in a relationship, I didn't mean he was looking for commitment at the moment. He tried, but failed on numerous occasions with many girls in his class.

"Anyway, what are you doing back here so early, didn't you have a D-rank mission today?" Tsunade asked as she flipped the wanted poster over.

"Gramps went out to pick up some tobacco for his pipe, he's still got half a room full of papers to sign. Mostly damage reports." Nawaki stuffed his hands in his pockets. If there was one thing he didn't look forward to when he became Hokage, it was paperwork. But he figured he could work something out to minimize it.

"So... You still want to be hokage after seeing how stressful it is?" Tsunade asked with a small smirk.

"Hell yeah! My dream to be like Hamisrama-oji will never end." Nawaki boasted with pure energy. Faithful is what kept most if not all hope alive in the village. Dreams were the only thing that kept shinobi moving forward through the times of risk. Every day was a risk no matter the challenge. Every breath a person took was a riskful take now.

It truly and only mattered on what people did to make those dangerous factors worth living. Becoming Hokage was Nawaki's way of passing through the times of gratefulness. While he may have nearly died and lost his friends, he lived another day and had his sister, had his home, had food, had decent clothing, and was thankful for everything about it.

All he really had to his ongoing mindset was becoming someone who could grant that to everyone. That was the Hokage. Brighter days, a cleaner future, something that his grandfather had wished for everyone during the times of wars that killed his clan.

Hashirama Senju unified the villages because of that. He didn't want anyone to live through the times where each day was possibly their last.

He didn't want that for anyone.

And Nawaki, realized that just now.

"Heh... I know you will. Speaking of dreams... I had a weird one last night." Tsunade smirked toward him, trying to build up the mood.

"What was it about?" Nawaki asked while sticking a finger in his ear.

"Something about a mark." Tsunade began, glancing at the marking on the paper that was unknown to her.

117.

XXXXXXX

John-117 bit his lip.

The Master chief's dilemma only continued to rise as the sun sink beneath the waves and raised with each coming day and passed with each and every hour. There would never be a single pause in this life now. There will never be another chance to return to the reality he once knew as home and thrived for Humanity's survival amongst the other extraterrestrial races. It didn't matter if he was killed in battle, since he always knew he would, but now he was just waiting for the fatal fight.

But other problems were coming to surface now to his attention.

He couldn't run forever, and now that he had attacked probably the second strongest village is solace and solitude and would be no more but a memory.

No one could keep up the escape forever. Every line had an end. Infinity was preposterous. Being hidden forever was impossible, even to those most adept at it.

There was only so much ground he could cover before he ran out of room to hide. The time he had spent in hiding from shinobi was climbing onto 4 years. Almost 5 now by next month. The time he had spent traveling through villages that were being under attacked and rampaged were the only times he ever explored. You never wanted to much time in one said village when there is a war breaking out everywhere. It just wasn't safe.

His time running was almost up. It could be said for an assortment of things, like his patience for one. There is also the contributing fact that he hasn't been sleeping correctly for the past four to five months. At night he would stay up and constantly listen to whatever was going on around him. Nothing stirred along the bowels of the Infinity at nights besides the engines resonating hum.

He thought of taking up reading, or even trying to write something to take his mind off, but nothing worked to sustain his insatiable insomnia. He knew there were other places he could take refuge from the overbearing isolation. But what would he gain from it?

There wouldn't be a single solitary moment of peace. His sense of physical time would never cease. It would be an everlasting loophole of life and that was it..

There would be no end to this circle once he made the loop, just another turnaround and back to square one. He had enough food, water, power, and living spaces for a small country but this wasn't for him at all. The ceaselessness that was simply known as the present, would always be that. The present. Never the past, never the future, never yesterday, never tomorrow, but always right now.

A bloodshot blue eye didn't blink. Being caught in a thousand yard stare with something that was so mind boggling that it was causing its intensity to be spot on.

A signal.

John looked at the screen closer, almost pressing the tip of his nose into the glass...

He actually... FOUND A LIVE COM CHANNEL!

John nearly buckled in his swivel chair after hearing and seeing it on the dusty black had walked around the Infinity this morning, doing small repairs around the dunes or vessel and keeping his guns that he is most in mint condition. After he spent the morning cleaning his armor and weapons, he went toward the library had found earlier this week and looked for a decent book to read. After spending a few unsuccessful minutes looking through the plethora of novels, eróticas, topographical maps of distant worlds, he left and came towards the communications deck...

He looked at the clock and noted it was 3PM in the afternoon. The signal was weak, coming hundreds of miles outside of the kaiju ocean over a small portion size of land.

John did what his instincts told him: He tried to stabilize the com channel. Twisting the knobs and turning the volume up, he listened through the speakers, trying to tune out the static and catch anything that could be beneficial. Nothing came out of the speakers so he continued to readjust the signal by continuing to spend the knobs to the point they almost would more than likely come off.

He tried it once, and again, but nothing was working. He looked below the desk and checked the plugs, taking heavy notice one of them wasn't going in correctly. Pressing down one of the buttons on the switches while sitting above the desk.

_*Static*_

John kept turning the knobs in all different directions, trying to set the pitches correctly and get a clear sound from the other end of the speakers.

"_Wort." _Came from the other end. It sounded muffled. Like someone had stuffed fluff in the speakers inside.

What was that?

John kept trying to re-establish the frequency but it was too far for the Infinity to pick up. The saltwater must have damaged it since he feels this war vessel has been in the sea too long. Seeing that his options were down on its last peg; he took this at the green light to track it down.

He left the communications room, not at all hearing the deep robotic sounds coming from the speakers.

XXXXXXX

The air was cold in the morning. So cold you could see your own breath. It was half past dawn in the Land of bears, but more specifically Hoshigakure. The Village under the stars was a very small village, just being composed of a collection of 4 buildings And a few vendors that were out to lunch.

In a rather small shack just outside of the mundane village, a short slender man stood in a small garden tending to his crops. He bent down slowly to pull a carrot from the ground when he heard the winds shift, causing the trees leaves behind him to move suddenly. A collection of d branches snapped off the tree, falling softly on the ground and alerting the man.

But this didn't stop his farming.

He was simply too busy and had a job to do. He bend over once more after putting the first vegetable and a basket he was carrying as he yanked another veritable up and examined it.

Rotten. Black and squishy with worms scavenging out of it and leaking through the sides.

He raised a scarred eyebrow at this, almost to the point it ripped from his skin. This never truly happened to him once in his 40 years of landscaping and harvesting. For some strange reason, his grandmother came into his mind.

His grandmother had told him of vegetables bringing luck depending if they were fresh and succulent... Or horrendous misfortune if they were expired and or uneatable.

He threw the vegetable in the brush, discarding it before going to the next one. Before he could do that something caught his attention off to the as if someone had stepped on one of the branches that fell off the tree. He knew there were deer in the area, although they never came up this close to his backyard.

When he stood up and walked a few towards the side of the fence, his foot suddenly went down a few inches into a hole. Looking down he was shocked to see what it was.

It was an odd footprint, but not from an animal he had ever seen or recognized before. It looked like an oversized deer... It was odd. There was a protective fence around the garden, and if anything got in his garden the dog would chase them out.

Speaking of which, where was his dog? He had let him out the night before to get water and he hadn't seen him since. His dog had a thing that when he went out at night to do his business he'd come right back and scratch at the door to be let in.

He never did come in last night.

Something was wrong and it didn't rub him the right way.

Forgetting about his garden, he stood up, and went back onto the path leading to his home. While he advanced towards the door of his home, not seeing the trail of the two toed foot following him, leaving prints in the moist dirt. The man walked onto his deck before hearing something resembling a crashing sound of a mirror being struck with the hammer.

KKKKSSSSHHHH!

The man felt a piercing pain below before his neck, before feeling absolutely nothing.

Nothing but the smell of his flesh... Burning.

XXXXXXX

John, armed with a battle rifle and two pistols attached on both of his thighs, while also carrying a pair of Multipurpose fragmentation grenades, trekked toward the village and stood as close as he could next to the clutter of fresh trees. He didn't want to carry too much while at the same time not have enough. He'd learned this the hard way on a multitude of occasions.

After landing the pelican to a secluded area 2 miles outside of a village he began traveling on foot through the almost dark forest as the sun's rays dimmed past the horizon. Making the sky a deep orange color as the clouds appear red.

For some reason he had a rather deep feeling in the vagueness of his mind as he stepped over a rotting log with moss growing around the base of it. The sounds of grasshoppers and the woodland creatures were so silent he could even hear his own breath under his nose.

Nothing on his scanner appeared. Nothing moved. Nothing peeped.

Something didn't seem right.

There weren't any activity of animals or even a single sound.

Whenever the shinobi would set traps they sometimes employed animals to distract them. This had happened to John a few times in the past but now nothing was coming up.

As John approached just outside of the village he came across a lone house. There was a small white fence surrounding a garden and stood about 4 feet up. John kept his rifle held steady while aiming forward and taking a step over the fences wall. He took a few small steps to the house that had no signatures coming from inside. He stepped over a rake and into the house over the stairs before seeing something dark and bulgy object on the floor.

Closer analysis revealed that it was a body.

John walked over to the corpse before noticing something was missing. A head to be exact. The stump that was soaked in bloodied black flesh, and the neck looked like it had been ripped and burned at the stump.

Quite gory in the Master Chief's case but not the first time. Although, it could be stated that it wasn't the first time he had seen such a horrific site by the shinobi's hands. The shinobi were known to kill and not leave any trace since it could always be tracked towards them.

Then again, this didn't fit their style.

Too messy.

Someone who did this obviously had a good time enjoying it while they committed it.

As he looked down he could see a few dabs of blood towards the left of his boot and leaving a trail. Following the trail with his eyes, he found the victim's head turned on its side by a small table.

It wasn't facing him, but he could tell from the back of its head the victim was a middle aged male. Presumably a farmer from the crops in the garden and picket fences. The Master Chief couldn't smell anything outside his armor but he could tell from the fumes escaping the man's stumped neck that the room smelled like a combination of charred flesh and human waste.

Chief had heard, or in a lack of better terms, learned some of the jutsu's being used against him. After fighting and killing the same enemy you picked up a few things. Not to mention a few jutsu scrolls that were found on the dead bodies of his enemies. At first he didn't know what He would have done with them, but it never hurt to learn a thing or two about something that was going to be used ill towards you.

As a matter of fact, he was thinking of ways of counteracting the ninjutsu and possibly coming up with some sort of way to cut off the connection to chakra and the body... If only he knew how course.

Fire, Water, Lightning, Air, Ice, Mud, Earth, ect. He knew the severity and long just sticks of certain jutsus, ranging from length, severity, how much chakra needed to be applied, what hand signals needed to be used, but most importantly chakra or control...

But something about this attack seemed painfully familiar...

Almost reminded him of his past that continued to haunt him.

The master chief looked about the dark room and felt something was off. Most of the furniture was knocked over and the cut marks on the man looked new. Hinting that the perpetrator was probably close. Not to mention the contributing fact that the corpse was in the beginning stages of death...

Fresh.

Almost in an instant before he could proceed with the continuous investigation, John heard a familiar screeching behind that only sounded like crashing glass shattering. Behind him was a glowing luminescence that's gave him a dark outline and let out a bluish glow.

Like a top caught inside a tornado, the master chief swung the stock of his rifle while bending his spine to the side, catching something in the face and causing a blair of light to shine explosively. When the chief looked through the scope of his rifle he expected to see a man, but instead he caught sight of a horrifyingly familiar thing before him.

A Sangheili.

An animated Sangheili to be exact.

The 7'4" alien was decked in its traditional white zealot armor growled as it's shields flickered offline from the chiefs hit on it's snout. It looked back at the chief with it's small black eyes before roaring in its thick coarse language. "Ahhh, lohbaba!"

After that was declared roughly, the zealot swung the long energy sword In a stabbing motion while shifting its right foot forward. The master chief dodged By taking a step back before charging the zealot. Chief's mind went into kill mode at the sight of this past monstrosity.

The zealot lost grip of the energy sword and got smashed into the wall behind, nearly caving it in towards outside. Chief used his weight and pressed his gun into the zealot throat while also making sure it's hands were restrained. The zealot let out a few curses before managing to use its large feet and kick the chief in the stomach, sending him back.

The master chief did not forget the strengths the zealots possessed as he nearly lost his balance. The master chief's shields screeched in his helmet as he took aim at the zealot who rushed toward his fallen weapon.

The master chief was faster though. With the pull of a trigger the side of the elites face was pierced by the 40mm round and splattered its purple blood on the wall. The zealot's muscles became like jello as it fell onto a table smashing it in two. Chief breathed heavily as he gazes upon the dead elite. He thought it was a dream and wanted to wake up.

He nudged the elite with his foot when he heard a pair of shuffles behind him coming from the front yard. When he turned around he was met with the sight of 2 methane tank wearing grunts.

The first one who saw him instantly recognized him. Dropping it's scary stupor it roll into a form of hysteria before trying to run. The second one did the smart thing and threw a plasma grenade inside the house.

The master chief shot at the first one who ran, catching in the side and causing its tank to explode and killing the other one, before watching the blue sticky grenade stick on the wall beside him. Kicking off the floorboards without even thinking, he flew out the closed door behind. Chief went straight through the wooded door as the entire house shook when the grenade detonated in fires of blue a second later. That soon ignited the house in a flurry; before causing it to collapse in a fit of rubble and dust.

The chief, who was on the grass and starting to hyperventilate from all the excess stress of seeing a zelot, rolled into a kneeling position when he saw a group of grunts standing 40 yards away. The small gathering spotted him before all opening fire upon him with a collection of plasma based weaponry ranging from the standardized plasma pistol to the needler.

The master chief was up as he began sprinting to the collection of trees outside the village. The master chief read his ammo intake when the barrage of plasma grew behind him. Noticing that they were constantly aiming at one specific point of the tree, he took advantage of it by formulating a distraction.

Grabbing a handful of dirt he threw it to the side, causing a small cloud of dust with leaves. The distraction gave him enough time to switch sides of cover and take fire at the oncoming fireteams.

He kept popping them each one by one, and soon the group of grunts was nothing more than a heaping pile if covenant corpses.

The master chief was panting as he emptied the entire clip. His fingers were shaking as his mind was swimming. Everything he had been tortured by for years was finally taking a toll on his mind. He questioned the reality he was residing in as of right now. Was this real? Had his mind finally shattered under the pressure and anxiety that had built up over the years here? He didn't know. He kept looking back into the sky, thinking of his teammates, teachers, trainers, handlers, friends, childhood acquaintances, and any other memorable person had come across in his life, trying to tell him everything was going to be alright. His back was pressed right into the tree and his hands were beginning to crush the gun's grip that he was holding.

He saw something move on his scanner to the left making him switch gears and spot a field marshal exit another hut, carrying a plasma launcher over its shoulder. The field Marshall didn't see him at first but knew something was wrong when it saw a collecting of dead grunts. The field marshal stroke his hand out in a forward motion, ordering a trio of jackals carrying beam rifles to investigate the massacre.

The master chief didn't let this stop him as he let his hand toss a grenade at the oncoming jackals. One of the jackals watched the grenade fall through the air and land at its feet. The jackals were blown away into different directions.

The marshal roared in rage before being assaulted by a barrage of bullets. The master chief switched to using both magnums against the field marshal while rushing him. The field marshal fired again, only this time shooting it up in the air. The chief ran right up to the field marshal before tackling it aggressively. He dropped the magnum in his left hand as he used his forearm to cut off the elites windpipe before pistol whipping it across the face with his free hand.

The field marshal's shields flared and it spat at chief with its tentacle like mouth with rows of pointed teeth. He won't forget about the specific enemy. He couldn't remember how many he had killed in the past but knew they had taken a toll on the planet Reach when it fell.

Trying to slip out of the spartans grasp and activate it's bladed gauntlet, it didn't see chief reach for his knife until it was too late.

Chief's arm swung around in half a circle and stabbed right into the field marshal's soft indigo eye, cutting through its shield that burst forward, and cut the flesh like butter. The field marshal only gargled through its lips as a long a deep outtake of air escaped it's jagged mouth.

Chief didn't stop there before pulling the knife back and stabbing down again and again in a frenzy like manner. He kept thrusting the knife in and out until the sangheili's face until it was resembling a crushed grape that was pulverized.

The master chief quickly got up, leaving his knife sticking out of the field marshal's face before being confronted by a dozen or so grunts arriving from deeper into the village. The master chief took a step back as he threw another grenade forward, scattering grunts as they to jumped away from the explosive.

The master chief took a few of the grunts out with 3 well placed headsets that made their heads nearly spin. A low ranking Didact follower elite wielding a plasma repeater, came from his left 23 years a away and shouted through its jagged haws, _"By the Rings, you will join your brothers in death!"_

The elite couldn't live up to his words when the chief automatically shot him right between the eyes. The elites head snapped to the side with it's shields flaring up and exploding when the chief hit it once again.

Chief took out a pair of grunts while reclaiming his fallen pistol and noticing another oncoming wave of covenant coming in from deeper in the village. A collection of plasma bolts came whizzing in his direction from all areas, missing him by feet as he sped toward a building's wall for cover.

Pressing his back against the wall so that he was facing the forest. While he loaded a fresh clip into his weapon his sensitive ears caught the sound of a bellowing how from afar that grew louder.

An all too familiar howl that granted instantaneous death once it touched you. Looking up he was met with the sight of something blue...

A Plasma motor.

Heading right towards him.

Charging to the left while nearly being grabbed by an elite that's snuck up to him, he just barely made it away from the motors blast radius that took out the elite and few grunts that were unlucky to be caught.

The chief looked forward to see it had come from the forest where he also heard a growling hum that resembled a cannon firing. A green plasma projectile flew right past his head and straight into a house's wall, causing the structure to shake down to it's core.

The elite gunner in the type-23 wraith kept gunning towards the chief, who in the meantime ,rolled into a ditch and almost dropping his weapon. He slapped his back to the ground and stared up in the sky,Listening to the plasma hit the ground near him and so a few fly over him, before rolling over on his stomach and popped a few rounds into a grunt that stumbled towards the upper section of the ditch.

The first grunt fell back while another one was punched in the face, sending its face mask right through the bone. Another grunt that was to his right begin shooting a barrage of plasma at him, missing each and every time.

A stray plasma bolt struck chief on the shoulder making him spin around until he was met with the sight of a charging hunter. Getting hit a few more times by the ground behind them, the chief backflips behind the ground before gripping the tank on his back and swing them in the opposite direction of the Type - 23 wraith.

The elite gunner inside of the wraith accidentally shot at the grunts gas methane tank. Once the rapidly firing plasma hit the red alloyed tank pointed on the end, it cut right through the nearest she like metal, which caused it to come off of the small diminutive alien... Before blowing up and causing the wraith to explode and a massive fire ball of purple flames that seemed to fly in all directions.

A few stray plates hit beside the chief who had to run backwards as the hunter kept running towards him, shaking the ground with each step it took.

The chief switched tactics as he pulled himself out of the ditch and began sprinting towards the center of the village. Plasma was stinging around him on all sides as he barely by a hairlines length, got away.

A zealot reared around the corner of a building and nearly caught him at the neck with an energy sword. The master chief bashed the zealot across the face, killing its shields power before looping his leg behind the zealots foot and using his weight to push it off its feet.

Before the zealot could take out the accursed demon, it had its face blown to the side as a round from the battle rifle ripped through its flesh and through its brain.

The master chief saw the zealots energy sword still clutched in its hand laying off to the side. Quickly prying it from the fallen covenant and linking it to his HUD, he immediately saw the swords jagged purcelent edge spring to life. Not fully charged, but 45% fully charged enough. He turned his attention back to behind him where the group of hunters were coming from, and seeing that they had him in his sights.

A massive hunter, weighing in at almost 10,500 pounds, ripped right through the side of building and loomed at the aging spartan with its dual neon eye sockets. As John turned to look up at the Mgalekgolo , he couldn't help but stare. It had been years since he felt the presence of one.

He didn't miss them at all.

The chief stood his ground as the lumbering tank armed with a plasma cannon lunged at him and brought its shield up to crush him.

The spartan spun to his left before slashing at the exposed worms of the hunter's arm. The hunters colony let out a squelching hiss as it felt 25% of them cut down the center. The chief watched the arm of the hunter slap on the ground, oozing its glowing blood in the process.

Seeing another pair of hunters come from where the first one came, the master chief took a pistol in one hand while clutching onto the energy sword for defense. Both hunters charged up their cannons, before both of them shot out in the bellowing tone. The duo green explosives ripped the air and slammed on the ground near the master chief.

Both hunters waited for the smoke to clear before seeing the chief wasn't standing where they had aimed.

Looming left to right, they assumed he snuck away... Supposedly.

One of the hunters on the right sides turned its tentacle like head when something shuffled behind them, but it didn't have enough time to react when an energy sword exited out from its stomach. Thousands of little hisses escaped from the energy swords end as the worms were sliced clean through.

The second hunter watched as its ally was cleaved diagonally, making the upper portion shift to the side and crash to the ground. The master chief swiftly dodged a bash from the hunter that reared its shield back and lunged at him. The chief swiped at the hunters impenetrable shield arm, making the colony of worms shift back a bit from the weapons force. The alloy used on the Hunter's were made from the same thing they used on the attack carriers... It was nearly impossible to crack or go through.

The Master chief swiped again and again with more force, and both of his attackers legs were cut cleanly in half. The hunter lost his balance and fell on its back while trying to swing a club of an arm around to catch the unsuspecting Spartan in the side.

The Master Chief raised the energy sword above his head before slamming it down onto the hunter's head, slicing down in a straight line. A few seconds later after the energy sword stops around the base of the hunter's neck just a few centimeters above the chest plate, both ends of the hunters had slid off to the sides.

The Master Chief dropped the now useless energy sword before running over a few corpses on the grounds around him and running back into the forest. He didn't stop for a second and kept on running until the trees here and pass for nothing more than blurs in the speed. He ran, and ran, and ran, and ran, and ran until he honestly thought this is nothing but a dream. His motion sensor could detect everything around him, and see any of his aggressors that were closing in on him.

His boots left craters in the ground as he raced past dozens of burning trees, nearly passing through them with his indomitable weight.

He could hear and almost feel the plasma flying in the air passed his head, hitting trees all around and leaving scorch marks. He could taste blood in his mouth, and he could smell death around him. As he kept getting closer and closer to his ship, he can only see smoke around his vision.

Everything around them was then involved in smoke. But distance top and. He looked once more on his scanner and could pinpoint each and every Jackal, grunt, Elite, and the hunters that only surrounded him even more.

He looked around the fire pit that he was caught in before noticing the grunts and Covenant forces just continue to barrel roll through the woods, turning the tens of them into hundreds, climbing onto the thousands.

The Master Chief's fingers were beginning to shake again as he kept looking around, looking for a way to escape the resurfacing onslaught that was known as the covenant. On the right side of him the groups were at their weakest with just seven grunts taking aim at him.

He aimed forward, and the killing continued.

Every grunt in the area soon fell under the Master Chief's continuing assault on them without mercy. soon every elites met a similar fate.

And onward it went.

XXXXXXX

The master chief struggled through the seat of his ship. Everything up to this point was simply too much. He pried a dead Grunt from question on his leg and throwing him into a ravine off to the side without a care in the world. The grunt hit the wall a few times before finally plummeting and slamming into the ground. The Master Chief was still panting as he desperately tried to collect his bearings and reload his weapon.

He was only just a few feet from his destination and wasn't teasing his movements to get inside his plane and get out of here. Not back to the Infinity, not back to the ocean, but off the planet entirely.

How the Covenant got here? He didn't have a single clue. He was beginning to suspect that this planet was something out of the ordinary and not in the sense, reality basic. He was beginning to assume that the Didact had sent him to one of the other far away planets that's lingered on the outer reaches of the Milky Way... A whole new universe.

How wrong he was. The Covenant were here.

The Master Chief slammed himself in the seat inside the cockpit and begin flipping a selected few of switches and knobs. He left his rifle off to the side of his right arm, leaning up against the other seat inside of the jet. Everything up to this point was leading to something he wasn't in for...

He had a feeling the Covenant knew he was there, and it would only be a matter of time before they came out to him again. Doing the only sensible thing now was to leave the planet and re-strategize himself somewhere else.

He didn't think the Infinity would be safe since the Covenant had location beacons could pick up anything on com channels... And he had a live com frequency as of right now. Going back there would be suicide. They knew where he was and could already be there right this very moment.

As soon as the jet took off above the blistering ground, he shot above the trees and could see everything beneath him seconds later.

Covenant, covenant everywhere. The bastards were covering the ground beneath him like an army of ants near the colony. They were spreading across the ground beneath them like parasites invading the body's blood stream. Breaking down sells one of the time by smashing in the homes and possibly mutilating anyone living within them.

He could see Banshees flying through the air and over the small diminutive houses like bees to a colony near a hive. After more than 2 seconds of looking through the scanners on his playing, he could detect 15 of them around his vicinity.

Looking back and over the horizon at the Banshees, they all simultaneously shot screen plasma cannons from their lower parts, that struck the village below setting numerous houses a blaze in a greenhouse a fiery fury.

The Master Chief didn't care though. He needed to get away from them. They were everywhere.

As soon as he hit the throttle and was going at about nine hundred miles per hour, he heard a low whine that sounded quite familiar to him. His arms begin to experience hot flashes that travel to the shoulders, around his chest, down his legs, and to his feet. Suma hot flashes got even more painful to the point where I felt like someone was stabbing him with a knife. The sides of his vision was becoming cultivated with the sparks of dots and circles.

He got higher and higher into the atmosphere it began to hear a voice...

The Voice soon grew louder into groans of anguish. The master chief kept piloting the Jet's engines upwards towards the atmosphere, hoping to get off as quickly as possible and look for the first train to land on in space. Somewhere far away from the Covenant where they would be able to find him. The shinobi war more than enough of a problem but the Covenant was in the big leagues of dangerous.

Soon it felt like someone was screaming in John's here as he jumped to the signed in his chair and nearly reared off course. reassessing his directions he went even faster this time by hitting the boosters.

He could hear Cortana now. She was close. Almost like she was sitting right next to him and breathing down his neck like the sick twisted version she had been appearing as him in his sleep. It has been like this for weeks now. With her coming in his sleep and attacking him, and each and every time she would kill him and some brutal fashion. No matter how hard he fought against her or how hard he would defend himself in his subconscious there would be no winning this one.

Then there was screaming in his head. So much screaming that it sounded as if glass with soldering in his ear drums and piercing the flesh all over him. The Master Chief's hands begin to squeeze the grip of the Jets handles, varying that he was going to lose control as he began to leave the planet's atmosphere at an even faster velocity.

The Covenant... Was here.

They were here.

Everything then turned dark...

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTE: As Boba Fett would say, "BACK FROM THE DEAD ASSHOLES!"

So... How was it? I've tried a plethora of things for this chapter involving my writing and I hope you enjoyed it. Anyway, I bet none of you were expecting the Covenant showing up. They're going to be playing a very important key role in the story, so pay very close attention. I'm also assuming you're asking on how they got here. Well the answer's simple... I don't know either.

I'm sick as a dog with a sore throat, runny nose, drowsy eyes, and limited mobility. Not in the greatest mood so keep your flames to yourself.

Time was limited and I had to get this posted as soon as possible. Beta reader to hell, I fly solo.

Review challenge: Leave a review of what you liked about the chapter, what you didn't like, and what you would want to see in the future.

This is all I ask from you the reader.

**Rules: No trolling... Please.**

Merry Christmas... And if you're offended, then you must be new to the Internet.

Naruto Fun Fact: 1 Ryō is equivalent to 10 Japanese yen, which equals to 0.0818 in US currency.


	15. Sinful deeds

**DISCLAIMER/ I don't own Halo or Naruto**

* * *

_"What is a fear of living? It's being preeminently afraid of dying. It is not doing what you came here to do, out of timidity and spinelessness. The antidote is to take full responsibility for yourself - for the time you take up and the space you occupy. If you don't know what you're here to do, then just do some good."_

-Maya Angelou

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Chapter 15: Sinful deeds

* * *

The Master chief wasn't aware of what was going on anymore. There was a heavy feeling of weight around him and he couldn't see straight past the flesh that were his eyelids, which made him very worried because they were fully open now. Something in the back of his throat was making it hard to breathe and he didn't understand what it was implementing to his current status. All he could hear and feel was the nulling exhilaration that could have been described as being stuck in between being awake and half-asleep.

He'd half expected to be taken prisoner by the Covenant and torn to pieces the minute he was taken aboard one of their depth cruisers. Yet he was alive, for now.

He blinked his eyes a few times, trying to keep the blurriness at bay but to no avail. He had an unsavory taste in his mouth that reminded him of some thick paste he had eaten once as a child and left a salty aftertaste.

He couldn't put his finger on it, but for some reason the atmosphere around him felt familiar. The gratifying sense of being weightless and weighed down at the very same time was odd contradictory in fact.

When he tried to reach up to his face and rub away the fatigue that was almost about to consume him, he couldn't move his arm below the shoulder. As a matter of fact, he couldn't feel anything from below his neck.

"Stranger things came in smaller packages didn't you know?" Someone said besides John that made the hair on the back of his neck stand up.

He snapped his head to the left and caught sight of the oddest looking woman he had ever laid eyes upon. She wasn't normal, anything about her was anything but normal. In fact, he thought he finally lost it and this was nothing more than an illusion casted on him by an enemy shinobi. She didn't look human nor did she look an alien... She almost looked like one of the Forerunners he had come across on Requiem.

She had shoulder length chalk colored hair with a pair of horns coming out of her head that stuck upwards. She had a pair of almost moon like guys with no irises within them. Above her eyes were round eyebrows that were a light purple color, mostly makeup in his opinion. She had a small mouth that had lipstick on and a small button nose in the middle of her face. But something that really stuck off about her was the closed flesh opening dead center of her forehead. She wore a very loose large kimono that was pure ice white with dark purple sleeves.

The Master Chief only stared at her as she stared back at him with a blank gaze before she spoke up.

**_"You... Aren't from this world,"_** she said in a voice as soft as silk. Which to the Master Chief sounded similar to the last time he came across someone who looked like this, who wasn't exactly the friendliest nor was he something to fight against. The Master Chief didn't know what to do except listen to the woman who sat next to him and was completely at her mercy.

_**"And... You don't have control over chakra... That is good," she said as she placed a hand over his heart, making him visibly recoil at the touch. He didn't know what to expect from her or if she was evil and so on. Sometimes**_, the most innocent-looking are always the ones easy to fall for.

**_"I can tell from your heart that you're afraid of me... I understand. My first love was exactly the same,"_** she said as she sat back with her hand inside her coat sleeves. **_"The man I gave my body to was someone I loved dearly. Strong, heroic, honest, compassionate... And very lucky,"_** she said as her lips spread into a smile, displaying her near perfect teeth.

The Master Chief didn't say a thing, but continued to listen to her. Even when he was trying to make sense of all this.

The young maiden sat there beside him, marveling the super-solider of a man beneath her. "Sometimes, I thought I was the most gifted and respected of my love's choices... But it would seem he was more than I had ever bargained for. And when he passed, I was... Almost dead inside. I committed taboo... And for that he was taken from me," she said as her smile vanished and she looked down."Humans were always... Different up close. Even if they were the cause of destruction... I still saw light within them."

"Who are you?" the Master Chief finally asked harshly.

**_"Your silence says much about you... I go by many things,"_** she began emotionlessly. **_"But it would seem everyone on Earth has forgotten who I am... I was once known as the Rabbit Goddess (卯の女神, Usagi no Megami), but my real name is Kagyua. Kagyua Ōtsutsuki,"_ **she said as she again reached out to touch the chief again.

"Don't touch me," he warned.

Goddess or not, he wasn't going to be felt upon by some entity that he didn't trust.

_**"I shall do as I please. After all, we once laid in each other's arms nearly eons ago,"** _she said to John who tilted his head.

He didn't know what to make of that, nor was he very comfortable with him being touched by some strange woman.

"I don't know you, now let me go," he ordered.

SMACK

Before he could even tell what happened, her hand lashed out and caught him on the right side of the face.

His helmet vanished. It was not there.

He wanted to reach up and feel his face but he was paying more attention to the fact this thing had just struck him across the face.

It stung. Badly.

_**"Impertinence will get you nowhere, husband... After all, we made that promise many lifetimes ago,"**_ Kaguya breathed out as she took the hand she struck him with before kissing her palm.

"What did you call me?" the Master Chief asked as a tear leaked through his eye. One of her fingernails grazed the bottom portion of his eyelid and it hurt. Whatever she said though made him turn all that pain aside and ask in a surprised tone.

_**"Use those ears and brain to remember,"**_ Kaguya demanded. **_"I must say... Falling into another being's soul and waking up as a human is very... Intriguing. Wouldn't you agree?"_ **She questioned as if he was speaking the same language of her.

"What?" John asked as bewilderment began bulging inside of him to the point it was becoming excruciatingly painful. What on Earth was she talking about and why did she call him husband?

Maybe this all was just an effect from seeing the Covenant again.

**_"Forerunners... They're like... Insects to us. Winding up. Precursors were the only real dominant threat. Mindless toys trying to bend will. They claimed to be gods. I proved them wrong,"_** Kaguya began before chief cut her off.

"You know about forerunners? How... How is that-"

**_"Possible?"_ **she interrupted. **_"Simple, the Ōtsutsuki Clan (大筒木一族, Ōtsutsuki Ichizoku), which hailed from another world were distant relatives to the Forerunners. Millions and millions of lightyears away from your own. And were the first offspring and true heirs to the mantle. We are the pre-Forerunners. Before the Precursors. That is a very, very old story, although. Not very important,"_** she said without much care in her voice.

"..." Nothing came out of John's mouth to respond.

'Then. That means. There was never a different universe. Everything. It's all the same. I never left. This is MY Earth,' The Chief thought as his realization turned into horror. Everything that has led up to this point was based upon theory and common sense.

He was no scientist, and experiments were out of the question, so he was left with a plethora of them lingering within the subconscious of his thoughts.

He wanted to know why everything looked like a drawn image, but needed to know more about the bigger questions at hand.

**_"Who... How am I here? Why do I keep coming here?"_** he asked toward the sub plane of nothingness that kept returning him here.

"Because your life force is connected to everything on the planet... You cannot leave. Even if you tried," Kaguya stated as she pushed a strand of hair from her large blank eyes. This didn't really answer his question since he was left unanswered on how his life force was even connected to this unknown world begin with. As a matter of fact, how did this world become bigger than the last?

"You didn't answer my first question... Why did you call me husband?" he asked while furrowing her eyebrows.

Kaguya sat next to him for the longest time, staring at him without blinking.

_**"Not everything goes away forever once it dies..."** _Kaguya said with a long gaze as she looked away from Chief to see overhead. _**"When a star explodes, does it completely vanish? No. My two sons... Remind me mostly of you... When you were... Before."**_

"I. Don't. Know. You," John said more slowly as he tried to move his limbs.

_**"You may not, but I remember everything. After I came down to Earth to live a life amongst humans I fell in love with... You,"**_ she said as her face was starting to lean in and her lips were just centimeters away from John's face. He wanted to push or lean his head away, but to no avail.

He could feel the coldness of her breath brush against his cheek and was trying to avoid any and all contact with the astral being. He felt a hand on the side of his cheek and pointed his face towards her.

When he looked into her face, all he could stare into was the pure white pearl colored eyes that were completely empty of any and all color.

_**"After a few months... I was pregnant with our twin sons, Tenji,"**_ she stated as she saw John's face turn into wonder.

Everything then exploded into a flood of light. As that all happened, he wondered who Tenji was.

* * *

XXXXXXX

* * *

He could only see the mixture of all colors together.

As he tried to shake the face of the women in white out of his head, images of Ellie Bloom still lingered in his mind as he wandered in and out of snapshots of memories. He didn't know why he thought of her, maybe the fact that when he was in and out of consciousness he'd have memories of her.

Her laughter and the feeling of her touch remained. She had been his neighbor and they played with each other almost every single day. It went on like that until he was conscripted in the Spartan-II program.

He never forgot her, but a small part of him believed that she NEVER forgot about him as well.

He put those small memories away now.

All he could see was pure darkness. His eyes were closed and everything attached to him, limbs and all, were numb. His hearing was starting to pick up the sound of loud clanking that soon grew louder and louder.

His brain began to wake up and give signals to the other parts of his body. He felt his legs being held up with his ankles touching together. His arms were over his head with the wrists being held together, and his back was scraping the floor.

Ever so slowly, he kept his mouth shut but opened his left eye, getting a view of a cave wall. Without tuning his head, he looked down to see five well-built men dragging him. Slowly.

His HUD's scanner showed him there were thirty-one people in the area, all staying close by him. His shields were still active, but for some reason he didn't see a gun on the top of his screen. It must have been lost or taken from him when he fell asleep.

He knew for sure he was moving. Not on his own actions but something man-made. If it had been machine, he would've heard something peculiar going on. Nothing but the sound of dragging dirt and a distant cracking further away from him.

Not doing much, he moved his arms and tried to pull his legs towards him.

"It's awake!" someone yelled while John could hear the sound of steel being scraped. He moved his arms again and felt something holding him down by the wrists. He pulled his arms forward, but instantly regretted it when he felt something slam on his chest, causing his armors alarms to blare. The Master Chief pulled again but harder, and he felt a tug around his neck before focusing his eyes even harder.

It was a bit blurry, but he could tell someone was sitting on his chest and trying to pull his helmet off.

"Jashin-sama wants to look in his eyes as he bleeds!" the figure on top of him screamed. The Master Chief instantly shot his head forward, catching the unsuspecting attacker right in the face. A dark red cloud engulfed his helmet vision before he could do anything else. He swiped his leg to the side and pulled on whoever had him held down.

"Don't let it go!" another terrified voice shouted as its voice seemed to bounce off the walls. From the lack of depth there was in the air surrounding Chief, he assumed he was in a cave. The Master Chief they didn't see his assailant as he was able to loop his wrist around something tied to him, and yanked on it. Causing one of his captors to lose their grip and let go of the bindings that were attached to him.

"Damnit, call for more helpers!" a muffled voice said from his left.

The Chief's vision was clear now and his scanner was fully operating, showing him everything and everyone around him. There was blood on his visor, but he could still hear, feel, and see somewhat of his attackers. Eyes weren't of importance to him right now. If he had to fight blindfolded, he would. It wouldn't be the first time, and it sure as hell wouldn't be the last.

His limbs for some reason felt sore, but he didn't think of that right now.

There was 14 of them within the same area, probably armed, probably deadly, but in a very tight space with him. The odds seemed even at most, but were beginning to go against him. If he moved smoothly, then he'd be able to swarm them.

The Master Chief rolled to the side hastily and managed to catch one in a midsection lock with one arm while kicking at another directly, causing the assailant's rib cage to cave in; he could even feel the bones shatter under his heel. His left hand instantly shot out and grabbed for the wrist of one of his attackers who had a kunai in hand. Bending it to the side and feeling the bones break like brittle, he launched another kick in the man's chest - ripping the arm off from the socket in the process.

There was the indisputable sound of flesh tearing with a horrid scream, followed by many grunts of tumbling bodies in a massive heap.

The Master Chief didn't hesitate as he used the detached limb as a club and snapped it on the side of another's head. The one attacker felt his world spin and dropped to the side like a deadweight.

He looked for a more suitable weapon that he had in his possession - but didn't see a single solitary one. Not even a feasible grenade.

Whipping around the corner with an aimed elbow strike, he caught an unsuspecting attacker in the side of the jaw before flinging the one he kept for to the ceiling and hearing the sound of flesh colliding with rock like a piledriver. He twisted the other elbow in about formation and caught a kick that was headed towards him.

Catching the foot in his hand, he grabbed the person by his chin before slamming him right into the wall beside him, making the person crash into the stone like a slab of meat.

"Jashin-sama praises you for this bountiful bloodshed he will feast upon!" a crazed voice said as John felt someone run up from behind and wrap his legs around his neck, attempting to squeeze the air from his lungs. The Master Chief's hand gripped onto his attacker's bony legs before flipping him off of him, slamming him face first in the ground before smashing a foot on the man's back to hold him down.

"Who are you?" Chief asked with a snarl as another man got up and spat teeth to the side. The Master Chief wasn't at all surprised that some of these men and women getting up from their wounds, but so quickly and confidently was shocking to him. He'd hit them with everything he was holding onto. And there were some definite killing strikes to vital areas.

It was as if they weren't feeling any pain. Immune to it, even.

He'd have to press a little harder now, just for counter measures to make sure they stayed down.

Even if he'd have to go as far to ripping their heads off.

He didn't care if he broke protocol to the amount of lethality he'd use. Survival was survival.

"We are the followers of great almighty Jashin-sama... And he wants you!" one of them stated with their mouth in a grin.

The Master Chief used his left hand to wipe the blood off of his helmet's visor, which didn't help much as it smeared the blood from the state-of-the-art Kevlar gloves before looking at the dead bodies he had disposed of...

Or, that's what he thought he would have seen at first. But what he saw the next really turned his blood cold and his throat clench.

All the people that he had to supposedly incapacitated, were getting back up like nothing had happened.

Even though they were groaning and moaning in heavy displeasure, none of them seemed to have suffered any fatal injuries. One of them was even missing an arm! The bone was sticking out from his shoulder and looked like it had snapped like a twig.

The Master Chief knew he ripped it off right off the joint! He remembered hearing the flesh tear right down to the bone. Looking to the left slowly, he could still see the fresh limb off to the side, cradled by the dry dirt on the cave floor.

The Master Chief took a step back before reaching behind and into one of his sheaths for his knives... Only to find that it wasn't there. He needed to know where his weapons had gone, or at least know where his jet went.

And maybe the explanation to how he got here.

"You came out of the sky like a shooting star. Fire and brimstone all around you. Like a true epitome of destruction," one of the men said as he took out his scarlet sword from behind his waistband like a snake baring its fangs. Ready to sink its teeth into warm moist flesh.

He was a rather tall individual, bulging with muscle and was covered head to toe in scars that ran very deep. He wore nothing besides a pair of dark pants with no shoes, shirt, or any sandals even. He was bald with nothing on his head besides sticky sweat that seemed to glow with the flames that let the inside of the cave.

The Master Chief became very unsettled by this. These people didn't look like shinobi. The garb they wore was new. Not armored or even slightly protected from anything. It was like these people had no fear of whatever damage that could come upon them.

"You should know that we don't take kindly to visitors..." the man began as a blade twirled in his left hand before he gently let the cold edge touch his palm. He applied a very small amount of pressure before sliding the knife down his skin. Creating a oozing river of blood to drip from his hand and to the floor.

"But we most certainly take sacrifices."

"What are you?" John uttered as he watched some of the men, who had their necks displayed in odd formations that weren't at all normal, snap them back into place good as new. Bones weren't supposed to heal that quickly or make those type of sounds without the thought of injury.

"The leader says your blood... Is immortal! Like the moon!" one of them screeched as he zoomed over to where Chief was as he plunged a knife down, aimed at the throat. The Master Chief caught the man's wrist before putting the man in a sleeper hold with an arm wrapped around his neck and bending the arm with the knife in the opposite direction.

The man in his chokehold began to turn blue as he gasped for air. Then he tried back flipping, but couldn't move any of his muscles.

Chief applied more pressure before he felt a dull crack in his captive's arm. The other men sprung forward with weapons in hand while muttering under their breath. John blocked a pair of sais that were headed for his face before swinging a leg that caught the man in the side, bending his spine.

He ducked when a woman tried to snap a pole in the side of his head, but got tripped up when the Chief shoved a fist in the woman's gut before grabbing the back of her head, and shoving it in the cave wall.

"So brutal!" the woman said as she pulled her face from the wall with a sickening smile. The mask she wore had shattered, and now Master Chief could see her clearly deranged features. Red liquid traveled down from her forehead, and over her left hazel eye and further down her cheek. Her teeth were filthy with grungy looking fuzz poking through the gums.

Mater Chief felt his insides become warm, and launched a palm strike in the woman's face to the point where it should have been smashed in. He felt a pair of arms go for his arm and lifted the man before swinging him again onto the ground before placing a knee on his chest. He kept punching the man in the face before he heard a whizzing by his head.

"Assassin Style: BRANDING PUNISHMENT!" one of them shouted as he held a pair of swords that laid in a fire and were now glowing hot. He spun them wildly in his fingers before charging the Chief like a crazed maniac with his tongue hanging out. With the Chief caught on the left and right, he didn't have enough time to dodge. He backed up into a wall before kicking off it with his left foot, shoulder ramming the man.

Master Chief got up before launching a series of kicking attacks at one of the men in the chest before getting hit on the back of the head by something. He didn't turn, but instead launched his back behind, catching two by surprise when all they saw was a black blur before getting sent into another.

Spinning his one attacker wildly, he sucker-punched another one while keeping a firm grip around one's neck.

"Assassins Punishment: Dancing Rain!" one of the attackers shouted as Chief heard an explosion above him, followed by a thousand tiny dabs above him. One of the followers he had was then pierced by said needles. The Master Chief applied pressure to the man's feeble neck before feeling a dull pop in his arm before dropping the man onto the ground.

The man who was previously in his clutches didn't seem at all phased by the fact that his vertebrae, along with an assortment of bones in his neck, were now beyond help when he grunted and seemed to be getting up from it.

Raising a foot up The Master Chief stomped on the back of man's head. Hard.

It could have been described as a watermelon being smashed full force by a sledgehammer, but of course the seeds were bone fragments, and bits of brain replaced the juice on the inside.

The Master Chief pulled his boot off of the man's now-destroyed head, which was nothing more than an oozing splotch, before hearing a pair of feet land behind him. "Skewering Punishment!" When he spun around, he caught sight of a red blade flying at him that made him raise an arm in defense.

The blade bounced off his forearm and he managed to grab the grip in the man's hand before ripping it out of his grasp. The dark skinned man held his hands together before yelling, "Soul Hunting!"

Chief felt his armor's alarm roar in alert when he felt his sides scraped by a pair of swords from two Jashin followers who dashed toward him without getting in his radars scanner. He then felt his sides begin to get hit by something every heavy. He looked to see two more men and a woman armed with weapons.

Both men had long staffs with 4 foot blades on the end, while a bald woman covered in tattoos was carrying a wooden club with metal on the end.

One of the man Shunshined forward while slashing above while the second man aimed low at Chief's midsection. In that very close moment, with smoke and speed John wouldn't be able to dodge in time. Quickly calculating where the top blade was going, he raised both arms and formed an 'X'.

The first blade that struck was the one aimed at his neck bounced off his forearm, but he heard a dull shatter and a small pop. When the second blade hit along the Master Chief's stomach, the shields took a massive hit from that, then he suddenly buckled when the club came crashing down from the side of his head.

"Break him! Break him!" the girl chanted before the club she was in possession with was swatted out of her grip and she was vaulted over his shoulder, thrown up and brought down on his upper shoulders. Her back was nearly split down the middle as she screamed and was used to slap against the ground before having both torn off.

The Master Chief held his hand up as he jumped back as both men in front of him spat in his direction. "You won't rip us apart, we just become angrier at being held away from our sacrifice."

"Sacrifice this," John muttered as he picked up the club and shot it toward the ceiling... Specifically the stalagmites that were above. Both men saw the weapon fly from the Chief's hand and spin at the ceiling like a flying top. The wooden club smacked into and through the rocks, breaking four of them and making them rain down on the battle below. The two shinobis jumped back before shouting with their hands in formation.

Behind each of them were very old and large looking barrels pressed against the caves walls. Covered in dust and wrappings. The metal around them was rusty but Chief could see a red marking on it... A fire symbol.

"Fire Style: GREAT INCINERATION!"

The entire inside of the cave lit up, brighter than any sun he'd ever seen.

The Master Chief didn't deter away, but knew the crazies trapped in the cave with him were incinerated. Why? He could see it happening right in front of him. Their flesh was peeling back off of their bones, but somehow it never vanished. It began to regenerate like nothing had happened to it.

He rushed through the flames down the caves throat, punching and kicking anyone that got into his way.

Demons, everywhere.

In his head. On his mind.

His world was brighter than what the cosmos could have ever dreamed of.

He could hear Cortana singing. Playing piano.

Then the fires consumed him.

* * *

XXXXXXX

* * *

He'd not quit clawing his way. Not if his muscles ripped or his bones were dust. He'd prevail through all sufferer.

Because the Master Chief was molded by misery.

The charred Master Chief pulled himself from the ground like the living dead, grunting and growling as dirt stuck around him in all places liked clay.

He was covered in a heavy coating of soot, blood, and numerous gashes from flying shrapnel that had bounded on and off him. The Jashin followers weren't anywhere in his sight.

The Chief grudgingly tore himself from the ground and looked down inside, and he noticed that the cave had fell in on itself. If he hadn't been as quick as he was, it would've been the end for him.

Taking a mental check and letting his sense come again. He looked around, noticing he was in an area that looked very different from the lush green forests he'd began to recuperate himself in. Almost as fast as light, he immediately thought about his Pelican. The same one he had ridden in when he... Crashed.

Cursing to himself, he looked at his wristband to activate the tracer, but saw that it was deactivated. Trying helplessly to turn it on, but it was too damaged. The screen was cracked and the inner circuits were more than likely fried.

Cursing in his mind again, he pulled himself from the rubble with exhaustion halting his motion, and looked at the setting sun above the trees.

He almost groaned in resentment when he couldn't recognize anything. There was a single path, but no visible or distinguishing landmarks to point out

He was lost.

Lost without weapons.

Lost without a map.

Lost without food or water.

And lost without any sense of faith... Or motivation.

The mysteries though from his previous encounters though kept him marked with attitude. A reason to search for reason.

Where?

He didn't know.

Looking down a path from the caves rocks, he simply jogged forward. Not knowing where his destination would be.

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XXXXXXX

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**_AUTHOR'S NOTE: Yes yes I know, 6 months is a long ass time to wait for a 5k chapter. Beleive me, I'd want to punch myself to. Thanks to all who have stayed this long._**

**_And Yes. This was all planned previously 5 years ago. Who the Master Chief fights will simply be a random event that happens on pure and accidental timing._**

**_Also, the answer to what Kishimoto regretted was Kakashi's face mask._**

**_I can't remember who answered it correctly, so hats off to whoever it was._**

**_Hopefully, I can meet the review mark quota of this chapter... Maybe 30?_**

**_So review and tell me what your thoughts are._**


	16. Shūjin

**DISCLAIMER/ I don't own Halo or Naruto**

* * *

_"There is no better than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance the next time."_

_-Malcolm X_

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Chapter 16: Shūjin

* * *

It was now the fourth week of running to solitude. Anywhere but where he once stood. The oncoming anguish that consumed him from his past mistakes kept him awake. Kept him moving. Kept him alive.

He hadn't stop for rest nor was food of importance to him as of now for the third day of traveling through the thicket. After so many hours of hiding, infiltration, and even more hiding, he had simply given up on those type of things. He was beyond done now with any or all hope.

Using the restroom only took less than a minute, and drinking water took less, but other than that he had not ceased his mobility. He had avoided villages at all costs while maintaining a distance between civilian and shinobi presence that lingers around him. He knew he was a wanted man and had sensed the minute someone saw him they would instantly recognized him, since news or stories spread across the land of fire... quicker than fire. No pun intended.

The Master Chief thought of that one particular bounty hunter that had lured him out a few years prior. Kakuzu, if he remembered his name correctly.

He was truly the scariest thing to come across in this world as of yet... Someone who stole hearts and could use them on his own whim, and be completely invulnerable to pain. Not to mention the sick man was immune to physical injuries.

Nothing compared him besides the immortal Jashinist group who took joy from causing mayhem and destruction through death. The things they did and committed were probably one of the most atrocious crimes the Master Chief had ever seen. Capturing travelers, using their lives for sacrifices, and then eating them!

What madness he had woken up into was nothing short of a nightmare.

A pure endless nightmare that would never exit his memories for as long as he lived.

Currently, it was half-past-noon, and the trees around him only became thicker and thicker with shade.

John traveled past another tree before jumping over a small rock that stood mid-way. He looked over his shoulder before crouching down.

He listened around to anything that sounded wrong, before getting up and jogging once again. His knife was the only thing on him at the moment, and it was beginning to dull.

His armor was scratched from head to toe and smelled horrible; absolutely dreadful. There was dried blotches of blood that went from the shoulder plate to his feet that were mostly from the Jashin followers that had proved to be formidable against him, and some of it was from animals he had hunted for food.

His helmet remained on, but had a few twigs and leaves stuck to the top. The hours were perilous to endure when there was so much going on around him. He had to constantly be on the lookout for guard posts, or lingering shinobi in the trees or across the roads. They could be anywhere or disguised as anything. It had only been a matter of time before he came across one by pure accident and it really tested his luck.

From his point of view, he didn't understand or know what had happened to cause him to crash and be kidnapped into a cave. One minute he was flying off this planet and somewhere else away from the terror. Next thing he knew he blacked out and was being pulled apart. No weapons, no tracing beacon, and no way back to infinity if it was still there.

He didn't know what was real and what wasn't anymore.

The Chief stopped for a moment to listen again, to anything that didn't sound peculiar. But this time he looked up to the sky, watching a flock of birds travel in formation due north. The seventeen of them flying in a perfect 'V' curved pattern before vanishing in the distance.

His nose scrunched up when he saw that.

Seeing them flying free mocked him in a way. Being stuck in a place he didn't feel obligated to be a part in.

After more than a few minutes of standing and doing nothing but feeling the wind hit against his armor, he couldn't understand why everything turned out the way it did.

Sure, this was a recurring thought that he came across every now and again, but after seeing the amount of devastation one could go through. It ate him. And at the very first sign of weakness that he showed, it stroke out to take him.

The sun's glow was going down and causing the sky to turn orange. Around him he could make out a large clearing, but couldn't see properly through the trees crowding his vision. Walking a few more feet over the grass that shrunk beneath his boots, he came closer and closer to his target. He stepped closer while making sure his body hugged the trunks of trees, he wanted to make sure that if he came across another outpost or even a village that he would at least have some cover, otherwise his position would be blown.

Trekking through a shallow river, he didn't pay much attention to some koi fish that passed on by without a care.

He came up a steep hill and noticed he was too heavy to climb up it. Looking down to the right the river traveled onward and probably did so for miles and miles.

He didn't have time to follow it, nor was it important. Looking up again, he could tell the height between him and the hill above was about twenty-two feet. When he jumped, he could go seventeen, maybe eighteen feet tops.

He looked to the left and saw nothing in particular besides the stream flowing downward. The trees sitting off to the side creating the massive forest on each end, and the orange-tinted sky filled above.

Looking down again at the mud near him all around, he knew he'd be too heavy to try and grab onto anything.

He looked up again and saw that a tree was growing just a few feet from the edge of the cliff. The trunk was wide and filled with deep gashes in the wood. Sap dripped down the sides with a small army of ants. Letting his eyes travel lower, he noticed some roots were sticking out near the bottom mid-way part of the cliff. Some were larger than others, while few were very thick and quite long. Old as well.

Thick enough in radius to support him if he was quick enough. Clambering his fingers together, he squatted before launching himself up and grabbing one of the larger ones. He clenched the grip he caught before using his other hand to shoot out and grip a trowel of grass above.

The grass began to rip from the ground and the root soon began to rip down the side. His muscles were beginning to tire and his eyes felt a lot heavier for some odd reason, but that wasn't on his mind.

He hadn't slept or eaten in four days, which meant John was in the starting stages of aggravated chronic hunger pains.

He shoved a foot out beneath him before managing to haul his upper part over the ledge.

Clawing another foot over, he finally got up and over the cliff. He stood up fully before letting his eyes scan the surroundings before him.

A road.

He hadn't seen a road in about... eighteen hours.

Sloshing his tongue in his virtually dry mouth and over his cracked lips, he turned to the left before notching his hand to the side of his waist. Even with the fact he couldn't see a way out of this, he wasn't going to stop moving. Once he got to a port and hijacked a boat, he'd head back towards the Infinity... If it was still there.

He was really beginning to question whether or not the Covenant was truly here or not. After everything that had happened, he didn't know what was real anymore. He didn't know how to truly put his finger on it. He didn't feel any pain, and nor did he feel... like he was truly in the zone that day. Any day, to be truthful.

Ever since the composer launched its weapon and the Infinity crashed into this world, he never felt like he truly left the battlefield mentally. Every second of every breath he took in was a risk.

He knew, of course, what to expect for each assignment that was given to him and what he was in for, but now since there was no direction for him, he didn't know what to do with himself. There was no FLEETCOM, no superior officer, or even an Admiral to dominate a simple task for him to follow.

Whenever he was stationed for leave, he'd silently prepare himself for what he was getting into. A recon mission, search and rescue, seek and destroy, defend, capture, everything! Anything he was involved in took time to get ready for. When he was sprinting from one place to another and dodging bullets or plasma at the same time, he needed a few moments to prepare himself. Then when the mission was over, he'd know when to... Calm down. Take it all at ease.

Now... He didn't know what the meaning was.

There wasn't a day he felt safe or secure. Not even with himself and what he had done. There were some times in the last few days he truly questioned which side he was one since there were no heroes here on this world.

In this world, there was only death. No one remained on top for long, and one after the other, they'd all drop like dominos.

The Master Chief wasn't sure he'd lost. But he didn't feel like he had won.

Staying in the center of the path was the most normal to him. He didn't want to leave and feel lost like he did on a number of times. He knew where he had landed and which direction the Kaiju Ocean was, but that didn't mean he felt like he was doing the right thing.

Suddenly he felt a stinging pain in his right foot. He stopped for a second to ease it, before shrugging over the discomfort and moving forward once again at his normal pace. He didn't let little things like that bother him for long since seconds could cost a limb or a life.

He kept on this pace for an hour, not paying mind to anything of the sorts that might have drawn attention from weary travelers. He knew he shouldn't have been out on the road like this, but right around this point of time, he was out of options. In retrospect, he seemed to run into more trouble off-road than on the road. Maybe it could have been luck testing him, or it was fate deciding for him.

He didn't question it since he didn't believe in it, though.

He trudged over the ground in his pair of thick boots with a deep sigh escaping his lips. He was running on fumes now and was nowhere near water. When he passed a set of thicker trees though, something alerted him.

Looking closer at the road he was on, he noticed something quite familiar about the said road.

Specifically, the road which reminded him of the day he came back with the named Sannin... After the issue in Amegakure with its general.

He looked around at the trees and leaves, before he took account it all did look rather questionable. As if he'd been here before.

Looking on his scanner, he didn't see any lifeforms in his vicinity. Suddenly, something on a tree nearby caught his eye, while the tree was a chocolate brown in the fall season, there was something not right about the tree to him. On it was a yellow and torn tinted paper, nailed right onto the bark with a rusty piece of metal.

Walking up to it, he scrutinized the words before reading it.

_**UPDATE**_

_**[WANTED ALIVE]**_

_**MASTER CHIEF /SPARTAN-117/'THE Orenjiaido Akuma'**_

_**APPROACH WITH CAUTION**_

_**Do NOT Approach alone**_

_**Skilled in taijutsu, hundreds of irregular killing methods, skilled in infiltration, adept in warfare tactics, and known for unusual illusion techniques. Almost impossible to sneak up on. Has been reported to have killed at least 1,200 nins and responsible for dozens more. Multiple kidnappings have been reported but not proven**_

_**Armor is said to be 'unbreakable'. Speculated at being fireproof, scratchproof, and blast proof.**_

_**Information: Subject is a highly trained individual carrying multiple unknown weapons. Reports show that 'Spartan' works in groups after being spotted in many nations in a 56 month period.**_

_**Description: Very tall 'male' in green armor with an orange round face, about 7 feet tall, carries metal plank. No mouth, ears, or eyes have been seen.**_

_**Affiliation: Unknown**_

_**Wanted For: 13 counts of Murder, 23 counts of vandalism, 170 counts of destruction of private property, questioning, assault on Hokage, Assault on Hokage tower residence, 15 counts of assault on ANBU, Numerous counts of conspiracy against the Hidden Leaf, brandishing weapons without consent or permits, and use of deadly explosives.**_

_**Major Announcement: After what is seemed to probably be one the biggest tragedies up to date, the Spartan was recently seen leaving a burning village with key witnesses saying he had been ripping apart homes, and destroying everything in sight.**_

_**Reward: 30,000,000 Ryō**_

_**Bounty Holder: Konoha No Sato treasury**_

**_If you have any information regarding 'SPARTAN-117', please report it to Hokage tower immediately. Any and all information that proves to be helpful will be met with a small reward. Any or small information withheld will be seen as treason, which will be met with imprisonment inside Konoha's Torture and Interrogation Force cells._**

His eyes roamed the paragraph once more, before he looked down at his mud stained feet and sighed.

'This isn't good,' he thought to himself.

He didn't need this. Not only were the shinobi learning more and more about him, but his escape from them was going to be even tighter than before. He wouldn't be able to defend himself properly with all these crimes held against him since they were all partially true. He didn't keep a number of how many people he killed, but he could remember the search parties that looked for him. The faces they made when he caught each and one of them off guard.

There wasn't much he could do at that point of time, though. He couldn't escape without getting his means of transportation at risk of being blown out of the sky. Killing them and leaving without a trace was the only sensible answer.

But he couldn't kill them all. He didn't want to. He shouldn't have to.

Wait... What was he thinking?

The Master Chief sat down on a knee before shaking his head.

He was lost without meaning.

The war that continued to plague the world never ended. It seemed to grow like a tree with roots touching the core.

He got up and walked for what seemed like hours, until he came to a road that seemed all too familiar. Even though he had been to one place just for a second, he'd remember it. The trees were full of life like most others, but looked reminiscent to him.

He thought that he had made a wrong turn and maybe wandered somewhere he shouldn't have. He had a destination to head to, but no way of telling or way of getting there within the month on foot.

His scanner wasn't picking anything up, nor were his senses triggered by anything suspicious.

This frightened him in a way.

He'd pick something up by now.

But he kept moving forward, until he came across a gate that was also all too familiar.

Konoha no Sato.

He quickly scampered right onto a bush beside him, while making sure his movement was at a minimal.

'How the hell did I-', his thoughts were cut off abruptly when he suddenly saw was four nins ahead. His vision was just enough to see who they were. The arrived from the left and were talking; not loud enough for him to pick up, but just enough for him to make out small talk. If he was correct, it was probably guards doing their jobs. He didn't want to get mixed into that on any given day. He already had enough unhealthy vendetta with Konoha as is, and he was nowhere near ready to get involved with them again.

He was up a creek without a paddle, without a weapon at least.

When he peered in a bit closer to them, he instantly could tell who they were. Four Inuzuka nins from the markings striking on their cheeks. He had read up about them. Not enough to determine their danger, but enough to assume they weren't to be reckoned with. From having expert tracking skills to outstanding smelling capabilities, they were the wrong people to hide from.

Although the only scent they'd get from him was the smell of blood on his hands.

Metaphorically speaking.

The chief held himself low as he crept back a bit with his knees bent. He turned to look for any debris that would make noise before moving again.

"Then when we arrived, we took the hostages and escaped," one of them followed up from his conversation. He was a rough looking one, well sculpted frame with a beat up look in his face. Along with a canine like grin.

He didn't do much kind to these little details though.

As they crept past him, one of the dogs they had stopped suddenly and its hair raised on it back. It revealed its gums lined with rows and rows of sharp teeth. One of the Inuzuka clan members who wore a rather large scarf around his neck frowned as well when he saw his dog act like this. Turning his head to the bush, he sniffed the air a few times. He grimaced from the foul odor radiating from the thick shrubs.

'Something not right,' he thought. His two other partners noticed as well, and their dogs were also starting to act up.

The Master Chief looked below him and saw his foot was just barely brushing against some sort of tripwire. He didn't dare move which could promptly detonate the device or spring the trap. He felt a slight bead of sweat run down the back of his head from the dogs that could smell him, and more than likely see him. He had to make a decision or he'd be killed.

Quicker than the men could even see, the dog lunged forward. Snapping and chomping at the bush. The Chief's gloved hand sprung up around the dog's snout before he twisted it to the side. The dog's head turned to an unnatural angle before falling limply to the side. Two of them men yelled as they let their dogs go at Chief. Who in return stepped through the tripwire before kicking off the tree with surprising surge.

The Chief flew to the side when the explosion rocked him like a ball. He smashed into the wall and felt his shield alarm ring through his ears. The piercing scream from the detonation still stung his hearing, but he didn't let it distract him. Getting up and looking back to the left where the explosion took place, he quickly noticed that one of the Inuzuka clan members survived but was missing a leg. He was screaming as he attempted to drag himself from the blaze that was growing, but soon felt the fire creep onto his legs and begin to consume him.

The Master Chief ignored the gruesome sight before attempting to run.

"Got you," a voice slicked behind Chief. He was about to move, but suddenly found his arms held down to his sides. His scanner beeped a few times with rapid succession, hundreds of puffs of smoke occurred around him. Like a termite caught in the dead center of an ant hill, he was surrounded on all sides. Hundreds of eyes upon him. Not a single point of exit for him.

They had been waiting for him.

"Hard or easy, your choice," Orochimaru slithered next to Chief, before holding his hands out. "Choose."

The Master Chief looked around to see numerous nins raise their hands with hand signals ready. All of them ready to deliver the killing blow when ready. But not before a familiar one jumped in front of him. She landed on her feet expertly on her feet with a brash but elegant entrance, before glaring.

Tsunade.

"Don't move," she uttered with her hands held in front of her in a guard position. She knew he was only fast when he was on his feet. If she got him on the ground or in a pin, she knew she could kill him. Even if his bones were harder than steel from the last time she fought him. His armor could only grant him so much protection before she could puncture it.

The Chief breathed heavily. One deep breathe before another. He wasn't even sweating anymore, but could count how many Shinobi there were. Almost two-hundred. Not only did most of them have armor and weapons in hand, but each and every one of them were above on the branches. Sticking to the wood like spiders on a web. All at unearthly angles.

He didn't move, but kept turning his head, just taking the situation at hand.

He was out of options. Out of tricks. But most importantly, being seen as a monster he truly was. All of these men and women who had him pinned in saw him as a monster. A demon. A terrorist. Everything he stood against. His morals were complete oblivion at this point.

It was a beautiful tragedy.

And he walked right into it.

With a heavy sigh and similar frame, he lifted his arms before folding them behind his head. Following that he slunk to his knees in the dirt road. He was spent. He's already been tracked down from hundreds of miles in all directions and was only seen as a killer. It wouldn't take long for the Hokage to make up his mind on where the Master Chief would go. More than likely to be executed. If that wasn't the case, then he'd rot in a jail cell forever. Never succumbing to age or disease.

Just a lifeless husk.

Tsunade stepped forward with her hands still held in a signal, ready for the armored Spartan to move.

All of the shinobi then descended upon him.

The Master Chief didn't even bother looking up to see Orochimaru grinning wildly down on him.

* * *

XXXXXXX

* * *

The Master Chief walked forward with his gaze held firmly to the ground. The cuts and old blood stains coated him in every spot, all within a mix of mud. There really wasn't any point for him to take his helmet off. They would more than likely attempt to, and he wouldn't stop them. There wasn't a reason to tell them of anything concerning the matter with him either. They would more than likely doubt him and be apprehensive with him. He would restrain himself in those areas.

As he was escorted from all sides to wherever they were going to lock him up, a small boy caught his eye in the crowd. Squeezing his way through the legs and passing his way, he looked towards all the nins keeping the armored man locked in at bay.

He was a small boy. No more than a pre-teen with blond spikey hair and blue eyes. Wearing a white long sleeved jacket with blue rings and a pair of dark colored shorts, he also had on a pair of standard shinobi sandals. His hair was what predominantly kept him easy to spot. Seeing hair like that with the sun touching it just seemed to make it match with the suns magnificent rays.

The Chief ignored all the stares, but for some peculiar reason that boys gaze on him made him feel like a fish. It was an innocent yet curious gaze. Not a one that was hate-filled like the rest he was receiving, but one filled with wonder.

That was the last time he laid eyes on Minato Namikaze, not knowing though the two would meet again.

* * *

XXXXXXX

* * *

"Apprehended you say?" Sarutobi questioned as he sat behind his desk.

"Yes Lord Third. Caught," a masked nin replied while standing next to the warhawk Danzo.

Danzo had been present to see the Spartan fitted with chains crafted by the best smiths in the land within the hidden leaf. Many of the townspeople were aware of his subsequent capture and were also able to watch him be taken in. The number of chains on him had to be lifted by five fully built men. Yet the Spartan carried them all with relative ease.

"Has he been contained?"

"Affirmative."

"Very good." Sarutobi blew out a breath. "See that his cell is under twenty-four hour surveillance. He's allowed no sunlight to enter. Make sure the locks are sealed and the traps are set. No entry from within. Visitors are going to be high ranking interrogators only. No exception under the matter," Sarutobi spoke with firmness in his voice. The two nins nodded, knowing fully that the Hokage's word was law.

The nins left the room, leaving Danzo and the Third Hokage alone.

"Chivalry isn't quite dead. You decided against killing him," Danzo noted quite silently. The Spartan was a myth to most of the southern regions to the unaware.

"For now."

"But alive! Hokage-sama, please explain why you wish to keep it breathing," Danzo questioned, with his one and only eye nearly about to pop from his head.

"The war on failing villages won't brighten up anymore with another body, Danzo," Sarutobi said as he stamped another 'approval' onto a folder that sat neatly on the far side of his desk. He hadn't been up to date with the recent events of Konoha's prisoner, but knew that his very existence was causing an uproar in the village. Many villagers were proclaiming the Spartan's very existence was a sin to Buddha himself, and the only reasonable solution was death in the most brutal of fashions.

Decapitation.

Lynching.

Stoning.

Boiling.

Dismemberment.

Thrown off a cliff.

Tied to a post and lit on fire.

Flaying.

Impalement.

He'd say when he wanted the Spartan to die. But how the Spartan would die, was another discussion.

"Then enlighten me on why we are housing a monster that attacked and murdered hidden leaf nin," Danzo asked through his scared lips. "There is only one place for him, and that is hell. With all the devils."

"The leaf village is top priority, but so is the morale of the villagers from within," Sarutobi began. "Killing everything that stands within our way solves nothing. I asking him to remove his weapons proved something to me that day... Is that he was unoccupied with assailants by his side."

"I don't understand what you mean?" Danzo said.

"Exactly. If he had anyone to help him, he would've escaped by now, yet he didn't. Which proves to me that he's alone and there's no organization that he works for," Hiruzen concluded.

"He's a being of nature that must be dealt with as soon as possible," Danzo claimed with absolute certainty.

"He's locked up in a prison that only houses few of Konoha's worst. He may escape," Hiruzen answered rather truthfully. "But he won't get that much further than the exit," Hiruzen chided before taking in a breath of fresh air and thinking back to the cold stone walls that were the very foundation of the Special Ninja Felony Prison. The main base was large, housing some mostly felons who committed petty crimes, while the deeper levels housed more serious level threat criminals. Unfortunately, many of the prisoners were either dead or wished they were.

The Master Chief was currently being housed in the level six super-max containment unit.

"What is the purpose of keeping him alive?"

"Rather personal reasons, to be exact." Sarutobi took his pipe from his mouth before glancing out his window. "Further looking upon him for certain."

"He's a dangerous man. Leaving him alive will put Konoha no Sato at risk."

"Yes, yes it would. But ending him now will leave more questions unanswered."

"Are they rather necessary questions?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact, they are."

Danzo shifted uncomfortably on his left foot. He wasn't getting anywhere with this.

"I'd like to discuss some other matters at hand, but I can see you are busy," Danzo said defeatedly. He'd get his way sooner or later.

"My door's always open," Sarutobi replied before opening his drawer and pulling out a folder.

Danzo left with his thoughts set only on one individual.

* * *

XXXXXXX

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Well, that's that. Chief's caught, the attack on the land of bears was pinned on him, and most importantly the chief's lost all sense of hope. I'm beginning to suspect people might be angry... But I honestly couldn't care less. This is my story. Mine. Ideas are always welcome but if they don't agree with me, then it's my right as the writer to deny it.**

**I've been busy with my studies and have much to catch up on. If you want to share your thoughts leave a review.**


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